Lightsource Secures Funding Financing
Lightsource Renewable Energy has closed the project refinancing of a 5 MWp solar power station with Santander UK plc ("Santander") who provided a £4.4m term facility.
Also known as solar farms, these projects are large-scale photovoltaic systems that supply locally generated green electricity into the UK national grid. Lightsource is the UK's leading developer and operator of solar farms with in excess of 316 MWp of operating solar power capacity in the UK across 250 sites and a strong pipeline of development projects.
This is Santander's first large scale solar farm bilateral refinancing deal and the intention is to continue to work with Lightsource on future projects. Named Park Wall Solar Farm, the project consists of 20,400 ground mounted photovoltaic panels and is located in Bridgwater, Somerset.
Paul McCartie, Structured Finance Director of Lightsource, said: "We are delighted to have established a relationship with Santander. It has just been announced that investment into clean technology for UK has risen to £1.6bn this year, which we should regard as a significant overall achievement. By establishing relationships with project funders, like Santander, we can continue to progress this economic growth towards developing an independent and secure power market."
Andy Williams, who specialises in renewable energy finance at Santander, said: "We were very keen to work with Lightsource and to demonstrate our increased commitment to the renewables market, which has entailed more than trebling the size of our deal team