Solarcentury secures €20m from Rabobank to build two solar farms in the Netherlands

Solarcentury and Rabobank reach Financial Close for two utility-scale solar projects near Apeldoorn in central Netherlands

Solarcentury and Rabobank have announced today that they have reached financial close for Apeldoorn IJsseldijk and Apeldoorn Beemte-Broekland. With the contract signed, the path is clear for both solar farms to move to the construction phase. In the coming months, the Apeldoorn community will be invited to participate financially in the projects.

Evert Vlaswinkel, Managing Director Solarcentury EMEA, comments: “We are excited to start construction on these Solarcentury-owned projects and particularly proud of the collaboration and teamwork that has allowed us to make this project come to life during Covid-19 and lockdown”.

Ivan Das, Director of Project Finance at Rabobank: ”We are delighted to be working together with Solarcentury to further expand the Solarcentury portfolio and to further build out our existing long term partnership to help realise the energy transition in the Netherlands and in other countries.” The senior debt provided for the two projects amounts to 20 million euros.

Frans van den Heuvel, CEO Solarcentury comments: “The construction of these sites follows on from the significant progress we have made building the 110MWp Vlagtwedde project in Groningen. This momentum is testament to the hard work of the team in the Benelux to expand the Dutch project portfolio. At the same time as closing Apeldoorn, Solarcentury has also participated in the financial close of Cabrera Solar: a 200MWp project in Spain; yet another lockdown achievement.”

Apeldoorn IJsseldijk covers 4.5-hectares and is 4MWp in size. It will generate 4GWh of per year. This is enough to supply over 1,200 households with electricity and at the same time the solar farm will save 2,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. Apeldoorn Beemte-Broekland is 28 hectares in size and 29.8MWp. It will produce 27GWh per annum, which equates to electricity for over 8,000 households and a CO2 saving of 14,000 tonnes per year. Together, the projects will generate 31GWh per year of clean, green power.

A crowdfunding process for the solar farms will be rolled out in the coming months. Construction will start soon and it is expected that both projects will be finished by the end of the year.