The solar company said that the financing for Salgueiro project marks the second Canadian Solar project to be financed by BNB following the $99m debt funding for the 115MWp Pirapora II project in 2018.
The Salgueiro solar power project is part of the 478MW solar portfolio awarded to Canadian Solar during the past two Brazil A-4 energy auctions in December 2017 and April 2018.
The Salgueiro project is supported by a 20-year, inflation-linked power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Brazilian Electric Power Commercialization Chamber (CCEE).
Construction of the project is expected to start this year and commercial operations at the plant are expected to be started by mid-2020.
The plant will utilize over 286,000 of Canadian Solar’s bifacial modules (BiHiKu) that can generate electricity from both sides of the module to benefit from high solar irradiance in Brazil’s northeast region.
The financing package for the project includes a comprehensive limited-recourse construction and non-recourse operations debt funding over a 20-year tenor based on the concessionary Constitutional Funds Interest Rate (TFC) in Brazil.
Canadian Solar chairman and chief executive officer Shawn Qu said: “Salgueiro project is among the first solar projects under the Brazil A-4 2017 auction to secure BNB’s development funding under the Northeast Constitutional Fund (FNE) program. To date, Canadian Solar has in total developed operational and pipeline projects of over 955MWp under the federal government energy auctions.
“Brazil has become one of the most important solar development platforms in the southern hemisphere. Together with our business partners, we are pleased to support the expansion of economic resources in Brazil’s northeast region through robust infrastructure investments in renewable energy.”
In November 2018, French energy company EDF Renewables and Canadian Solar raised a total of BRL1.39bn ($373 m) for their jointly-owned 399 MW Pirapora solar complex in Brazil.
The solar plants comprises more than 1.2 million of solar modules supplied by Canadian Solar.
