SunRay secures €120m financing for Italian solar project

Independent solar power producer SunRay Renewable Energy has secured €120 million of project financing for a solar power plant near Rome, Italy.

SunRay subsidiary Cassiopea PV was provided with the €120 million project financing by a three-strong bank syndicate made up of Banca Infrastrutture Innovazione e Sviluppo, Société Générale and WestLB AG. The banks also provided interest rate hedging coverage for the transaction. Italian credit insurer SACE also took part in the deal, acting as a mandated lead arranger and also partially guaranteeing the Société Générale tranche of the loan.

SunRay is to develop a 24-megawatt plant at Montalto di Castro which will be the largest photovoltaic plant in the country. Construction work is already underway and the plant is scheduled to be connected to the main grid by the end of the year. SunRay said it intends to expand the capacity of the site to 100 megawatts by the end of 2010.

The new plant will be capable of generating more than 40,000 megawatt-hours of energy each year, generating power from its 80,000 installed solar panels. The plant will avoid the emission of more than 22,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually, according to a SunRay statement.

SunRay Renewable Energy is headquartered in Malta. It has a strategic partnership with private equity house Denham Capital to develop 300 megawatts of solar projects by 2012.