Spanish renewable energy firm Abengoa has received financing offers for two of its solar plants and expects a recovery in its biofuel operations, the company's finance director said on Wednesday. Banking sources told Reuters Loan Pricing Corp in March that Abengoa had been seeking a loan of 440 million euros ($630.1 million) to finance construction of the two 50 megawatt (MW) plants, Helioenergy 1 and Helioenergy 2.
"We have had offers for financing, but talks were slowed by the introduction of the government register for renwables projects. The financing for the parks will depend on whether we are included in the register," Armando Sanchez-Falcon told Reuters in a telephone interview.
The finance director was speaking shortly after Abengoa posted its financial earnings for the first half of the year, which showed a better-than-expected 16.3 percent rise in first-half net profit to 83 million euros ($119 million). Abengoa is building the Helioenergy parks as part of a 300 MW complex due to come on line in 2013. It will also house another three 50 MW concentrated solar power (CSP) plants dubbed "Solnova".
Sanchez-Falcon was optimistic the Solnova plants would be eligible for feed-in tariffs from the government. The tariffs are premium prices the government pays renwable energy generators for the energy they put into the electricity grid and which are designed to gradually make renewables competitive with conventional energy sources.
"It is probable that the Solnova plants will qualify. They meet the conditions set out by the government," he said. CSP uses the sun's rays to heat liquids which drive electricity generating turbines, compared with photovoltaic (PV) solar panels, which directly convert sunlight into electricity.
Comments
Comments are closed.