SunEdison secures funding for solar plant in Bulgaria

SunEdison has closed a funding package of €155m to finance the development of its 60.4MW MWp / 50 MWac solar power plant in Karadzhalovo, Bulgaria.

The company SunEdison secured the finance from with IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and UniCredit Group.

SunEdison general manager for Europe Pancho Perez said: "We are very pleased to collaborate with IFC, OPIC and UniCredit in this transaction."

OPIC president and chief executive officer Elizabeth Littlefield said, "We are pleased to partner once again with SunEdison, as well as IFC and UniCredit, to support a solar solution for Bulgaria’s growing demand for energy."

"These types of public-private collaborations – using development financing to leverage private sector investment in state-of-the-art technologies – point the way to ever-increasing use of renewable energy sources in developing regions around the world, a trend we are happy to support."

The project covering an area of 100ha employs 214,000 solar modules and is expected to generate sufficient energy to power 27,000 homes and avoid 37,400 tonnes of CO2.

SunEdison expects to complete the sale of the equity of this power plant later this year.

In September 2011, construction of the plant began and it was interconnected to the grid earlier this month.