SunEdison unveiled the sale to its partner of a 70-megawatt photovoltaic power plant near Rovigo town in northeast Italy – potentially Europe’s largest – for 276 million euros ($378.3 million).
The Rovigo solar power plant, to be completed by the fourth quarter, will be acquired by energy investor First Reserve Energy which already paid an initial 46 million euros.
First Reserve will complete payment once the Rovigo plant is interconnected by yearend, through a long-term project debt financing. First Reserve has reportedly obtained commitment letters from leading project finance banks.
SunEdison will continue operate and maintain the plant, which it jointly developed and owned with Banco Santander, after the sale.
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The Rovigo plant is expected to provide power for 16,500 homes and displace 40,000 tons of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of removing 8,000 cars from the road, in its first year of running.
SunEdison merited final approval from the Italian government for the project in March 2010. It was announced then that the Rovigo plant would surpass a 60-MW facility in Olmedilla, Spain currently the largest PV power plant in Europe.
The plant was also to exceed the capacity of Italy’s largest solar facility, the 24-MW Montalto di Castro plant built by SunPower Corporation (Nasdaq:
SPWRA
) and SunRay Renewable Energy.
“Rovigo will serve as a worldwide reference for its scale, representing many unique skills embedded in our partnership with SunEdison, including expertise in coordination of complex solar projects, technical management and financial execution,” said Mark Florian, managing director of First Reserve Energy Infrastructure.
In May 2010, SunEdison and First Reserve formed a joint venture to raise $1.5 billion for acquiring existing and potential SunEdison solar projects.
SunEdison, which was bought by MEMC Electronic Materials (NYSE:
WFR
) last year, specializes in developing, financing, installing and operating distributed power for commercial, government and utility customers.
