Canadian-based Polaris Infrastructure, a publicly-traded company engaged in the acquisition, development, and operation of renewable energy projects in Latin America, has signed a Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) with a renewable energy developer, Potentia Renewables, to acquire the 32 MW Canoa 1 operational solar project in the Barahona Province, Dominican Republic.
The project reached the commercial operation date (COD) in March 2020 and has a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Edesur Dominicana, a local Dominican distributor.
Polaris agreed to purchase all the issued and outstanding common shares of Emerald Solar Energy, which owns 100% of the project and the licenses and permits, in exchange for $18.4 million in cash at closing. Polaris will own 100% of the project, including the Canoa 2 expansion.
Polaris will assume non-recourse debt at the project level of approximately $35 million. The project has a PPA denominated with an estimated price for 2022 of $128.1/MWh. Such PPA has an inflator of 1.22% per annum until the price reaches $142.8/MWh, at which point the price remains fixed until the end of the PPA in 2040.
The definitive concession allows the installed capacity to be doubled from the current operating capacity of 32.6 MW to approximately 65 MW.
Earlier this week, Alternus Energy, a renewable energy independent power producer, agreed to acquire up to 228 MW solar projects in Spain. Alternus has executed a binding purchase agreement to acquire the projects at ready-to-build (RTB) status. The projects are in mid-stage development and are anticipated to reach the RTB stage during Q2 and Q3 of 2023, subject to permitting and suitable grid connection conditions. The developer will be responsible for all activities and costs to achieve these milestones prior to closing. The projects are estimated to achieve COD in 2024.
According to Mercom’s Q1 2022 solar funding and M&A report, in March 2022, Polaris Infrastructure has acquired two solar projects totaling 13.5 MW in Panama.
Also, the report stated that a total of 29 solar M&A transactions were recorded in Q1 2022 compared to 43 in Q4 2021. In a year-over-year comparison, there were 20 solar M&A transactions in Q1 2021.
