EDEN Renewables India Closes 165 Mn Loan for 450 MW Solar PV Project

EDEN Renewables India (EDEN), a joint venture of two world leaders in renewable energy Total Eren and EDF Renouvelables, has secured a financial close for its 450 MW solar PV project which it won in a Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI-III) auction, with a group of three major international banks.

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

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.

Currently, the project is under construction in Rajasthan. EDEN won the project at a tender launched by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), following which EDEN signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with SECI in June 2019. The project’s commissioning is expected towards the first half of 2021 (June 2021).

Founded in 2016, EDEN builds and operates solar photovoltaic projects across India. As of 2021, the company has 207 MW operating solar plants, 450 MW under construction, and over 1,600 MW under development and due to commission by 2022. It says it will increase its capacity up to 2,200 MW by 2022.

Speaking of their achievement, the CEO of EDEN Renewables India, Sudhir Verma stated, “I am very pleased that we have successfully reached the Financial Close of our SECI III Solar Farm. This is one more success for EDEN and a significant moment for the development of renewable energy in India. At EDEN, we are eager to provide our expertise in high scale solar PV farms to contribute to a low carbon environment in India, in line with the country’s objective to achieve 40 percent of non-fossil fuel generation by 2030.”

Total Eren develops, finances, builds and operates renewable energy power plants (solar, wind, hydro) representing a gross capacity of more than 3,300 MW in operation or under construction worldwide. It has an objective of achieving an installed capacity of more than 5 GW by 2022.

“This successful Financial Close reflects the ongoing interest and trust of the lenders in the Indian renewable energy market and its promising prospects,” said Laurence Juin, Chief Financial Officer of Total Eren.

Juin continues, “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 during the first semester of 2020.”