First Reserve solar firm raises €80m for new parks

9REN Group, a portfolio company owned by US energy investor First Reserve Corporation, has raised €80 million from three banks for the financing of five Italian photovoltaic parks, which are currently under construction and will have a total peak capacity of 22 megawatts (MW).

Italian bank Unicredit Group and Natixis of France acted as initial mandated lead arrangers for the deal, with Unicredit acting as agent and Italy’s Mediocreval joining the syndicate as a lender.

The parks are located in Apulia region in Taranto province (total capacity 14MW) and Latium region in the Rome and Latina provinces (total capacity 8 MW).

The project is expected to complete by the end of the year and will bring 9REN’s total installed solar capacity to 45MW. It currently has 40MW of solar projects in construction and over 300MW under development.

9REN, which has headquarters in Madrid and Rome, was formed in April 2008 by the merger of Spanish contractor 9REN Espana (formerly Gamesa Solar) and Italian development company Ener 3 – both companies having been acquired by First Reserve. 9REN focuses on the development, construction, operation, upgrading and ownership of photovoltaic power plants and provides turn-key project management for third parties.