Cubico buys 105.6 MW of PV plants in Italy

The British renewable energy infrastructure company has agreed to acquire 18 solar facilities located in Italy from a joint venture between U.S. companies Riverstone and SunEdison.

April 28, 2017 Emiliano Bellini

A PV plant owned by Cubico in Italy.

Image: BFP Group

UK renewable energy investment firm Cubico Sustainable Investments announced it has acquired 18 solar power plants with a combined of 105.6 MW from Silver Ridge Power Italia (SRPI), a Joint Venture between U.S companies Riverstone Holdings LLC and SunEdison.

The company has not revealed the financial details of the transaction. Cubico said the plants have a power range between 1 MW and 43 MW, and that these are located across three Italian regions: Apulia, Lazio and Sicily.

All of the plants were completed between 2010 and 2013 under Italy’s third and fourth FIT programs Conto Energia. Cubico added that the installations are owned by nine different special purpose vehicles, and most are already financed through project financing structures provided by four pools of banks, without providing further information.

The 43 MW project, one of the Italy’s largest PV plant, is located in the municipality of Cellino San Marco, in the southern region of Apulia. The project was developed by AES Solar Energy Ltd, a unit of AES Corporation, and Riverstone Holdings. The company, which hired Schneider Electric as EPC contractor, used thin-film modules provided by U.S. manufacturer First Solar for the €173 million ($189.3 million) project.

In 2014, AES agreed to sell its 50% stake in Silver Ridge Power LLC (SRP), the parent company of SRPI, to U.S. solar company SunEdison Inc for $165 million. AES said at the time SRP had PV projects in operation and under development in Europe, India and the U.S. AES also said SunEdison was granted an option to acquire AES’ 50% ownership in 130 MW of solar PV projects in Italy for an additional $42 million by August 2015.

Including this transaction, Cubico’s solar and wind power plant portfolio in Italy has reached 205 MW. The company owns wind, solar and water infrastructure assets across UK, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico and Uruguay, with total capacity exceeding 2.3 GW.

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