Lightsource Renewable Energy secures refinancing for solar PV projects

Lightsource Renewable Energy Limited has closed £28.4 million (US$45.5 million) refinancing of a portfolio comprising three UK solar parks totalling a cumulative installed capacity of 34 MW with funding from The Royal Bank of Scotland.

Located at three different locations, the solar parks have been developed under the Renewables Obligation (RO) subsidy regime. The three solar projects refinanced are the following: Bishops Sutton (12MW), Little Morton (14.3MW) and Sutton Mawr (7.5MW).

Paul McCartie, Finance Director for Lightsource, comments:

“Our continuing success in the solar industry relies on good relationships with key financial institutions like RBS. The trust and support we have garnered in recent years has allowed us to grow and develop to become the leading solar energy portfolio holder in the UK. There remains a huge opportunity for further growth in the UK and we are delighted that RBS is lending its support to us and the solar industry as a whole.”

Andrew Buglass, Head of Energy, Structured Finance, RBS, comments:

“We are delighted to support this project which represents a significant deal for Royal Bank of Scotland, and further endorses the expertise of our team. We highly value the relationship developed with Lightsource through this transaction and earlier financings under the Feed in Tariff and RO regimes. We have a strong pipeline of deals in UK solar project finance that we are currently working on including further larger scale projects under the Renewables Obligation.”

Lightsource’s current installed portfolio of 609 MW positioning the firm as the UK’s leading solar developer and operator.

RBS has been at the forefront of the UK solar market since its inception in 2010 having funded over 400MW across ground and rooftop mounted projects.