Bank funding for a 451-mln-euro solar project at Amyntaio
Greek banks Alpha, Eurobank and National have signed loan contracts with the energy groups RWE and Public Power Corporation for the construction of four photovoltaic projects with a total capacity of 730 MWp in Amyntaio. This is an investment of 451.4 million euros, with co-financing from the Recovery Fund.
The investor is METON Energy SA, in which RWE Renewable Europe and Australia (51%) and PPC Renewables (49%) participate, subsidiaries of RWE and PPC respectively.
The loan part of the Recovery Fund is progressing at a satisfactory pace, hence the competent Deputy Minister of National Economy Nikos Papathanassis said on Thursday that within the next few days the request for the next tranche will be submitted. The request will be separate from the one for the grants, which will be submitted toward the end of the month, he said, as two milestones are still pending.
The loan agreements for the photovoltaics are divided into two parts: The first financing for the construction of three photovoltaics, 280 MWp, with a total investment of €196 million will be made with resources from the Recovery Fund of €98 million and with a total bank loan of €59 million, proportionally from the three banks, while METON Energy will participate with €39 million of equity.
The second financing concerns the construction of the photovoltaic park “PPC Amyntaio Mine”, with a total capacity of approximately 450 MWp, and a total investment of €255.4 million, of which €127.7 million will be covered by the Recovery Fund, another €76.6 million will come from bank loans, proportionally from the three banks and €51.1 million from METON Energy.
As part of the development of the projects, bilateral contracts for the purchase and sale of green electricity from the four new photovoltaic projects have already been signed. For the first three projects, a 15-year contract has been concluded with PPC, which will supply the green electricity produced, while through a 10-year contract, PPC and RWE Supply & Trading (an RWE group company) will purchase the green electricity energy that will be produced by the “PPC Amyntaio Mine” project.
