Amplio invests €13m in Italian solar

Amplio Group, a London-based operator and investor in the renewable energy and environmental sectors, has invested approximately €13 million in six solar plants of 1MW each in the provinces of Foggia and Lecce in Puglia, southern Italy.

Amplio: raising its solar exposure

The investment, for a total of 6MW of new capacity, brings the amount Amplio has spent on solar plants to €33 million over the last year. The latest deal was partly financed with equity and vendor finance to accelerate construction of the solar plants.

In a statement, Amplio also announced that it is expanding its solar team and will seek finance for an additional 20MW to 30MW of solar plants in 2010, which it says are in the final permit stages and ready to commence building. Once all the plants are fully operational, Amplio says it will refinance its solar portfolio with senior bank debt.

Amplio’s fully operational solar portfolio is now producing a total of 9MW. The firm has already built and project-financed 3MW in Sicily, with Iberian construction firm Martifer the engineering, procurement and construction contractor.

In July last year, Amplio announced it had secured €40 million from institutional investors to build a pipeline of up to around 100MW of photovoltaic solar plants over two years.

Make sure you see the February 2010 issue of InfrastructureInvestor magazine, which includes comprehensive analysis of the green infrastructure market, including solar.