Macquarie Infrastructure Debt Investment Solutions finances solar project in the UK

Macquarie Infrastructure Debt Investment Solutions (MIDIS), has financed a 29MWp ground mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) project. With more than 113,000 solar panels, it is one of the largest solar projects in the UK to date.

The £21.5 million facility is split into index linked and fixed rate tranches. It will provide the project’s sponsors, Quercus Assets Selection (Quercus), the renewable energy infrastructure asset manager, with a 19 year financing, spanning both the construction and operational periods.

The project is located across 56 hectares in Pembrokeshire, Wales and benefits from a 15 year power purchase arrangement with Norwegian utility, Statkraft.

Kit Hamilton, Senior Vice President, MIDIS said:

“Increasingly, UK and European sponsors and developers of renewable energy projects, require innovative solutions to address their financing requirements. We worked closely with Quercus to understand their business needs, the construction risk and long dated maturity profile and look forward to rolling out this solution to other projects in their pipeline.”

Diego Biasi, Manager, Quercus said:

“We required a financing structure to see us through construction completion and into operations. We are pleased to have worked with MIDIS on this innovative facility that combined the flexibility of a construction facility and the security of a long term fixed rate takeout. We look forward to building out the balance of our 2015/2016 pipeline.”

MIDIS, a part of Macquarie Group, invests in infrastructure debt for a range of global institutional investors. In December 2014 it announced it had raised total commitments of £979 million for its UK inflation linked debt strategy, which includes separately managed accounts and a pooled fund.