Fabrice Aymat
RINA
“This was an important project for RINA in France. We are growing our presence on the French market and our wind and solar teams on location will allow us to provide valuable support to the country’s renewable energy industry.”
Fabrice Aymat
RINA
“This was an important project for RINA in France. We are growing our presence on the French market and our wind and solar teams on location will allow us to provide valuable support to the country’s renewable energy industry.”
| Business | Time | Project Coordinator |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | Starting Date: 2016 | Sonnedix |
The project represents the largest solar PV refinancing operation in France in 2015 and saw the involvement of three investment firms; Natixis, Banco Santander and The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (a member of the MUFG Group).
Acting in different roles and providing the refinancing debt for the solar ground-mount portfolio. RINA were brought in by Sonnedix and Astris Finance (Financial Advisor) as an Independent Engineer to provide technical advisory services to the lenders on the project which had an average remaining life of 16 years and 2 months on the existing Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) as of January 2016.
RINA acted as the Technical Advisor for the lenders on the 203 million euro project, carrying out a yield and performance analysis, site visits and a technical review of the entire project portfolio including key component and warranty analysis and EPC, O&M and grid connection reviews.
RINA was appointed by a
group of lenders including Natixis, MUFG
and Banco Santander to undertake an
independent technical review of a portfolio
of solar PV projects in France, owned by
Sonnedix France and consisting of six
ground-mount plants built on four different
locations across the north and south east
of France, with a total installed capacity of
57.3 MWp.
RINA undertook the review
from the point of view of an Independent
Engineer and covered a wide range of
activities to produce a full technical due
diligence report including a technical
and warranty review of all major installed
components together with a full project
technical review, site visits to the plants and
studies of the historical production data
for an operational performance review and
projected yield assessments for financial
modelling, EPC, Operation & Maintenance
and Asset Management contract reviews,
and a grid connection review.
Engineers worked with stakeholders across
organisations within critically tight deadlines,
delivering evidence of decision-making
quality to reduce risk, optimise performance
and enhance capability.
The project was successfully closed with the
refinancing of the portfolio and, with market
conditions favourable for renewable energy
projects across the country and further
possibility for development into other
French speaking countries, RINA
decided to continue its global business
expansion with the opening of new offices
in Paris in February of this year.
RINA was able to carry out the scope of work, compile and deliver the required technical reports within extremely tight deadlines, necessary for the successful completion of the project which became the largest of its kind in France, confirming the interest of French investors for solar PV refinancing.
