European Energy has secured a €96.5 million financing of its Apulian solar farms with the French financial service firm Natixis.

The agreement marks the first Italian photovoltaic park ever to be financed without first receiving state subsidies.

After just one year of construction, the Troia solar farm in Apulia (near Foggia) was connected to the grid in June and today stands as Italy’s largest solar farm. More than 80.000 tons of CO2 emissions per year will be saved at the existing power plant.

The financing activity relates to a total of 121,5 MW of solar farms in Apulia, divided into three sections:

• Section A: operating 63 MW as of November 2019. Entitled to receive feed-in-tariffs for 20 years under the 5th Conto Energia.
  
• Section B: 40 MW in grid parity finished in June 2020.
  
• Section C: A total of 18,5 MW in grid parity to be finished by October 2020.

“We are very pleased to have now secured this important financing of our Apulian solar farms, and we appreciate Natixis’ continuous support. Italy is one of our main markets, as we can pair the climate conditions and sunny days with cutting edge solar technology. We stand ready to invest heavily in similar Italian projects over the next 5 years.“

Knud Erik Andersen, co-founder and CEO of European Energy.

“The present agreement is another recognition of our competence in developing renewable energy projects. Our strategy is to build last generation wind and solar plants with cutting edge technology and market oriented. I am happy that our projects are attractive not only to clients like i.e. utilities and industries but also to investors and financial operators.“

Alessandro Migliorini European Energy country manager and CEO of the Italian branch European Energy Italia