Econergy Renewable Energy, an Israel-based investor, developer, and operator of renewable energy projects, has finalized a €150 million (~$162 million) loan agreement with the UK-based Phoenix Insurance to support the construction of part of its pipeline of solar photovoltaic (PV) projects in Romania and Poland.
Phoenix Insurance, an insurance company, will provide Econergy with €100 million (~108 million) for the company’s pipeline projects in Romania and €50 million (~$55 million) projects in Poland.
As part of the agreement, approximately €110 million (~$118 million) will be granted as a convertible loan, and a total of circa €40 million (~$43.2 million) will be granted as a fixed loan.
“In addition to Rgreen Invest’s €350m strategic investment, this new agreement marks a vital step in Econergy’s development and will support our ability to implement ready-made projects from our large backlog while maintaining financial flexibility. We are making strong progress in the development of this backlog, and we expect to see income from connected projects starting in the second quarter of this year,” said Eyal Podhorzer, Econergy’s CEO.
In Romania, Econergy has 1.7 GW of pipeline projects under development, of which construction has begun for over 300 MW.
The company has a pipeline of over 1.6 GW under development in Poland and has already started constructing its first 50 MW solar PV project.
With an overall pipeline of projects of more than 6 GW of solar PV and wind projects across Europe and an additional 2.6 GWh of storage projects, Econergy aims to have approximately 3GW of renewable energy projects connected to the grid by the end of 2024.
Earlier this month, France-based energy firm ENGIE said it had raised €2.75 billion (~$2.9 billion) after successfully closing its triple-tranche green bond issue. The transaction delivered an average coupon rate and duration of 3.93% and 12.4 years, respectively.
According to Mercom Annual and Q4 2022 Solar Funding and M&A report, large-scale project funding in 2022 came to $32.1 billion in 179 project funding deals, to $18.7 billion in 185 projects in 2021.
