US Starwood Energy gets financing for 30-MW solar plant

(ADPnews) - Sep 29, 2010 - US private investment firm Starwood Energy Group Global LLC said Tuesday its affiliate Starwood SSM2 Canada Inc had closed financing for a 30-MW photovoltaic (PV) facility in Sault Ste Marie in Ontario.

The company did not provide any financial details, saying that the project financing and long-term credit facility was provided by Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale and KfW Ipex-Bank.

In the end of 2009, the company secured financing for a similar 20-MW solar installation in Sault Ste Marie, which is to be completed in the near future. Together the two projects will be connected to the grid of local utility PUC Distribution Inc.

The new project, recently acquired from community-scale solar power facilities developer Pod Generating Group, will include three 10-MW solar PV power generation units. It will be equipped, operated and maintained by Q-Cells North America, a unit of German solar cell maker Q-Cells SE (ETR:QCE). When completed, the plant would be among the biggest such facilities in North America, Starwood said.

Starwood SSM2 will supply electricity to as much as 12,000 households in Ontario. The facility will also annually save the amount of carbon dioxide that 5,700 cars and light trucks could emit for 12 months. Energy production is expected to start in the third quarter of 2011.

The project fits the Renewable Energy Standard Offer Programme, supervised by the Ontario Power Authority (OPA).

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