Refinancing loans totalling £39 million from Scottish Widows and Lloyds Bank are being used by UK renewable energy investors to fund three solar power farms.

The package will fund fully operational photovoltaic assets which are connected to the National Grid. The solar power farms are located in the south of England (Kent, Isle of Wight and West Sussex) and between them, with peak capacity of around 15 MW, generate around 15,000 MWh of power a year.

The £39m debt facilities comprise £22.4m (16.5 years) and £15.1m (17.5 years) fixed rate term loans from Scottish Widows, and two £1m debt service reserve facilities from Lloyds Bank. All the assets benefit from the UK Feed-In-Tariff regime.

Sponsors

Sponsors

Sponsors

The assets’ ultimate ownership is by individuals and investors highly experienced in the solar sector, including the managing director of ib vogt, which acted as sponsors in the transaction. Founded in 2002, ib vogt is a German-based integrated solar developer, O&M and asset manager, with experience in over 1.15GW of solar power plants built and in construction.

Commenting on reaching Financial Close, Anton Milner, Managing Director of ib vogt, said: “I am delighted with the joint funding solutions provided by Scottish Widows and Lloyds Bank. These long term, highly competitive financings provide significantly enhanced value for money for the shareholders.

Commenting on the facilities, Mark Hamilton, Associate Director of Scottish Widows Loan Investments, said: “This investment underlines our continued support for renewable energy projects as we funded similar photovoltaic assets, as well as offshore wind assets, in 2018.  Our partnership with Lloyds Bank’s Infrastructure & Project Finance team enables us to offer long-term lending alongside complementary bank funding, providing a suite of borrowing solutions for our clients.”