Leading renewable energy consultancy and service provider, Natural Power, has acted as lender’s technical adviser
for the financing of the 220 MW Solara4 solar farm in Portugal. This is a landmark project in the European solar market and will be Europe’s largest unsubsidised solar project when completed in 2021.
The project is being developed by WElink and the lenders are Investec and Kommunalkredit.
Hannah Staab, Natural Power’s Head of Advisory – Europe, said: “We were delighted to support WElink, Investec and Kommunalkredit on this financing. Due to its size and complexity, the project is not without challenges and we were able to draw on the expertise of our global solar team to mitigate technical risks and work with our clients to resolve issues. We look forward to supporting the project until it reaches commercial operations in 2021.”
The due diligence and energy yield assessment were led by Natural Power’s UK team, with site inspections carried out by Natural Power’s French team. Natural Power continues to support the lenders by providing construction monitoring throughout the remainder of the construction phase.
Gregor Hogarth, Technical Manager – Investments and Transactions Europe at WELink Energy, said: “I was pleased with the speed, diligence and flexibility shown by Natural Power, which was coupled with excellent communication throughout. We hope to continue working with Natural Power on our strong pipeline of projects.”
