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Scatec + Aeolus partner on Tunisian solar developments: Japan’s Aeolus — a subsidiary of Toyota’s investment arm Toyota Tsusho Group — has signed a partnership agreement with Norwegian renewables developer Scatec to jointly develop and own the latter’s EUR 79 mn Sidi Bouzid and Tozeur solar projects in Tunisia, according to a statement. Under the agreement, Aeolus has acquired a 49% ownership stake in the projects. The tender for the plants entered its final stages back in May.
The details: Scatec — which was awarded a 20 year power purchase agreement with the option to extend 10 years from the Tunisian state utility firm Société Tunisienne de l’Electricité et du Gaz — will begin to construct the projects and will handle Engineering, Procurement & Construction (EPC), Asset Management, and Operations & Maintenance (O&M) services.
The solar project reached financial close: At the same time, the two solar projects — which have a capacity of 60 MW each — have reached financial close, Scatec said, adding that the funding will come via “non-recourse project finance debt, concessional loans, and equity for the partners.” The main lenders are the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the French Development Agency’s Société de Promotion et de Participation pour la Coopération Économique (Proparco), with support from the World Bank’s Clean Technology Fund and the Global Environment Facility.
Aeolus’ will help the project unlock more funding: With Aeolus’s participation, the project has been selected to receive carbon credit funding by Japan’s Ministry of Environment, the statement said. The funding — which will be provided through the ministry’s Financing Program for Joint Crediting Mechanism — will be allocated once commercial operations begin, effectively reducing the equity partners’ funding needs to around 15%.
