Canadian Solar announced that it has secured a non-recourse project finance facility of up to JPY16 billion ($149 million) from Shinsei Bank, Limited (“Shinsei Bank“) for its 53.4 MWp Oita Hijimachi solar power project.
The non-recourse facility has an 18.5-year tenor, with debt repayment flexibility in 2019 to enable a potential sale of the solar power project to Canadian Solar Infrastructure Fund, Inc., recently listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Oita Hijimachi solar power project is located on Kyushu Island in southern Japan. Construction of the project commenced in November 2017.
Canadian Solar will supply approximately 160,000 CS6U MaxPower solar panels. The project is expected to begin commercial operation in May 2019 and will sell its electricity generation to Kyushu Electric Power Company, Inc. under a 20-year feed-in-tariff contract at the highest rate of JPY40.0 ($0.37) per kWh. ( Read Canadian Solar, Photowatt and ECM Greentech to Form JV in Low-Carbon Production of Silicon Ingots and Wafers)
“Today’s announcement marks our largest non-recourse credit facility raised in Japan. We are delighted to have Shinsei Bank provide us with low cost, flexible and rapidly deployable debt to fund the construction of our largest project this year,” commented Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Solar. “We have secured JPY65 billion of project financing over the past 3 years, a testament to the superior quality of our project development and performance of our Japan assets.”
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