Total Eren and EDF Renewables announced that EDEN Renewables India, which is their equally owned joint venture dedicated to large-scale Indian solar photovoltaic (PV) projects, has successfully secured financial closure for its 450 MW SECI III solar PV project, with a group of three major international banks.

Total Eren and EDF Renewables had signed a 25-year long term power purchase agreements (PPA) for four solar power projects with an installed capacity of 716 MW. These projects are located in the northern Indian states of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

The four projects have been awarded to EDEN. Out of the four PPAs, one has been signed with the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) for a solar project of 450 MW (equivalent to 300 MW AC capacity) in Rajasthan. Apart from this, EDEN has entered three PPAs for two solar projects of 98 MW (equivalent to 70 MW AC capacity) each and one of 70 MW (equivalent to 50 MW AC capacity) with the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited.

The SECI III project has been successfully financed through a green limited recourse project term loan of $165 million provided by DBS Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (Singapore Branch).

According to Mercom India Solar Project Tracker, Eden Renewables had won the SECI project by quoting ₹2.60 (~$0.036)/kWh.

EDEN was advised by Herbert Smith Freehills and L&L Partners Law Offices as legal advisors and Chatham Financial Europe as hedge benchmark advisor for this transaction. The project, currently under construction in Rajasthan, was awarded to EDEN in a tender launched by SECI, following which EDEN signed a PPA in June 2019. The project is expected to be commissioned towards the first half of 2021.

Laurence Juin, Chief Financial Officer of Total Eren, commented: “By partnering today with such a high-quality financial consortium, we look forward to pursuing our project’s construction along with our partner EDF Renewables and through our joint-venture EDEN Renewables India, which plays a key role in achieving our local ambitions and has positioned itself in the Top 3 of Indian solar tender winners.”

Frédéric Belloy, Executive Vice President of International Operations at EDF Renewables, said: “The secured financing carried out together with the financial partners is a major step in the delivery of our 450 MW project. We are now fully mobilized towards its completion. SECI III, as well as our recent successes representing 1,300 MW new projects, demonstrate EDF Renewables’ willingness to support India to reach its great ambition for renewables energy.”

In August last year, Masdar (or the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company) announced that it had signed an agreement with EDF Renewables North America to acquire a 50% stake in eight renewable energy projects with a total capacity of 1.6 GW to expand its renewable energy portfolio in the United States.

Rahul is a staff reporter at Mercom India. Before entering the world of renewables, Rahul was head of the Gujarat bureau for The Quint. He has also worked for DNA Ahmedabad and Ahmedabad Mirror. Hailing from a banking and finance background, Rahul has also worked for JP Morgan Chase and State Bank of India. More articles from Rahul Nair.