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Brazilian solar project gets US$150 million financing
Atlas Renewable Energy has hired White & Case LLP in New York and Miami and Machado Meyer Advogados in São Paulo to borrow US$150 million to fund a solar power project in Brazil.
Allen & Overy LLP in New York, Washington, DC and São Paulo and Dias Carneiro Advogados in São Paulo advised the lenders, IDB Invest and Norway’s DNB Bank. The parties signed the deal on 10 May.
US-based Atlas Renewables will use the loan to build its 359-megawatt Lar do Sol – Casablanca solar plant in the south-eastern state of Minas Gerais.
The transaction represents the second time that a Brazilian renewables project is granted long-term financing solely in US dollars. The first time was in October when Atlas Renewables received a US$67 million loan for a solar project in north-eastern Brazil. The same four firms were involved in that deal too.
The project has a 15-year power supply deal with British mining company Anglo American’s operations in Brazil. The company has pledged to start relying only on renewable energy sources for its South American operations by 2022 and to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 30% within the next decade.
The Lar do Sol – Casablanca site will be equipped with bifacial solar panel technology that collects sunlight through both the top and bottom sides of the modules.
With a yearly production of 805-gigawatt hours, the solar plant will shed an average of 50,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year, which compares to removing over 19,000 cars from the streets of São Paulo.
Launched in 2017, Miami-headquartered Atlas Renewables develops, builds and operates solar and wind projects throughout Latin America, with offices in Brazil, Chile and Mexico. The company is the renewables branch of UK-based investment company Actis, which manages US$15 billion worth of assets worldwide. Currently, Atlas holds a portfolio of projects under development with a combined capacity of 578 megawatts.
