Solar Millennium Hires Deutsche Bank and Citigroup to Help it Secure $6bn Financing
The U.S. project company of Germany’s Solar Millennium announced that it has hired Deutsche Bank and Citigroup to help it raise as much as €4 billion ($6 billion) to finance construction of thermal power projects across the sun-drenched U.S. Southwest.
Solar Millennium’s U.S. unit, Solar Trust of America, did not provide details on the number of plants or their location, only to say, “each power plant has an expected financing volume of more than one billion US dollars.”
The financing will likely support construction of at least two CSP parabolic trough solar facilities set to generate a combined 242 megawatts of electricity. Each of the projects is backed by power purchase agreements with Southern California Edison, and each is located in Southern California. The financing could also support a third project in Nevada.
About the bank’s mandate, the release says:
Together with Solar Trust of America, the mandated banks are structuring the debt and equity financing and provide support in securing subsidies and loan guarantees granted by the Department of Energy within President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus program.
The release did not announce that Solar Millennium or its subsidiary companies had secured funding, or that they were close to doing that. What’s been announced is a simple Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU), a loose commitment from Citigroup and Deutsche Banks to assist Solar Millennium in securing project financing.
