Low Carbon, a renewable energy investment firm, secured £310 million (~$391 million) second finance facility to construct an additional 448 MW of solar projects in the UK and the Netherlands. ABN AMRO, ING, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Intesa Sanpaolo, and the existing banks, including NatWest, Lloyds Bank and AIB, provided the financing.
The £310 million (~$390 million) finance facility announced takes the total amount of debt funding raised by Low Carbon to £540 million (~$671 million), making it one of the largest Gross Asset Value (GAV) based construction debt facilities in the private sector.
Combined with the initial finance facility announced last year, the additional funding brings Low Carbon’s total solar PV pipeline under construction in the UK and Europe to approximately 1 GW. This will provide enough renewable energy capacity to power about 350,000 homes and avoid 300,000 tonnes of CO2e.
Commenting on the announcement, Founder and Chief Executive of Low Carbon, Roy Bedlow, said: “We are delighted to have four leading international banks join our efforts to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy infrastructure at scale. The UK and the Netherlands represent key investment markets for Low Carbon, and deploying nearly 1GW of solar PV capacity will play a significant role in helping us to deliver our strategic goal of creating 20GW of new renewable energy capacity by 2030.”
Head of Financing at Low Carbon, Fernando Dominguez de Posada, said: “This funding is an important milestone for Low Carbon and highlights our ability to raise flexible and efficient structured funding products at scale, a skill that will be critical if we are to deploy the ambitious pipeline that we have in front of us.”
According to Mercom’s Q1 2023 Solar Funding and M&A report, large-scale project funding came to $5.3 billion in 62 deals, a decrease of 46% compared to $9.8 billion in 52 deals in Q4 2022.
