The finance package includes results-based payments based on verified emissions reduction.
Image: Flickr/Leonardo
Dubai-based renewables company Yellow Door Energy has secured up to US$33 million of publicly-funded finance to establish eight solar projects in Jordan.
The solar plants, which will have a total generation capacity of 48.3 MWp, will supply power to five commercial offtakers in a project Yellow Door yesterday described as the biggest “private-to-private” renewables portfolio developed under Jordan’s wheeling regulations, which permit use of the state grid to enable self-consumption.
The loans come in the form of a $15.6 million credit line from the private company-focused Deutsche Investitions und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG) subsidiary of German state-owned development bank KfW, with DEG also contributing to a separate $10.6 million loan package for the project, supplied jointly by London-based development lender the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
Up to $5 million will be loaned, via the EBRD, from Washington-based multilateral development lender the Global Environment Facility and the solar projects will have the chance to bank up to an additional €1.5 million ($1.8 million) of “results-based payments” from the Spanish and EU governments in return for the verified removal of carbon emissions, assessed by a system being developed by the EBRD.
The energy offtakers will be the Umniah mobile telephone network owned by Bahraini state-owned parent Batelco; French supermarket chain Carrefour; the Jordanian Safeway supermarkets owned by Kuwait’s The Sultan Center; garment manufacturer Classic Fashion and shopping center Taj Mall.
Yellow Door’s shareholders include the private-sector International Finance Corporation arm of the World Bank, the Arab Petroleum Investment Corp established by 11 Arab states across the Middle East and North Africa; Norwegian state-owned energy company Equinor; and Japanese brand Mitsui.
Lenders HSBC and the Jordan-based Arab Bank were also involved in the project financing deal.
