Canadian Solar has secured a 295 million Brazilian reais or $80 million financing from Banco do Nordeste (BNB) for its 114 MWp Salgueiro solar power project in the northeast state of Pernambuco, Brazil.
Canadian Solar won the 114 MWp Salgueiro solar power project as part of the 478 MWp solar portfolio awarded during the two Brazil A-4 energy auctions in December 2017 and April 2018.
The Salgueiro project has a 20-year, inflation-linked power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Brazilian Electric Power Commercialization Chamber (CCEE). The company will start the construction of the project this year targeting for commercial operations by mid of 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 comprises 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.
The Salgueiro project is the second Canadian Solar project to be financed by BNB. The first one is the 366 million Brazilian reais or $99 million debt funding for the 115 MWp Pirapora II project in 2018.
Canadian Solar CEO Shawn Qu said: “Canadian Solar has in total developed operational and pipeline projects of over 955 MWp under the federal government energy auctions.”