Middle East & Africa Awards
PFI Yearbook 2018
The Sweihan solar PV project was perceived as such a success by its procurer, ADWEA, that there is now talk of 1.5GW to 3GW a year of new solar PV projects in Abu Dhabi over the next few years. At 1,177MW, Sweihan itself will be the world’s largest solar PV plant.
Middle East & Africa Power Deal of the Year – Sweihan
The Sweihan solar PV project was perceived as such a success by its procurer, ADWEA, that there is now talk of 1.5GW to 3GW a year of new solar PV projects in Abu Dhabi over the next few years. At 1,177MW, Sweihan itself will be the world’s largest solar PV plant.
The tariff on the project is competitive, to say the least – US$0.0294/kWh. The Marubeni/Jinko team bid US$0.0242/kWh but during the all-important summer months it will receive 1.6x the tariff. The bidders were told to maximise power output at the site so gas-fired plant could be switched off during the summer. The bids were lodged in September 2016. The deal, despite its size, rattled though to financial close in May this year without too many hiccups in the traditional ADWEA style. The scheme is due into operation in Q2 2019.
Financing was made up of a five-year soft mini-perm, with a 26-year term, priced competitively at 120bp to 190bp. It will be interesting to see what happens at the end of the mini-perm, whether the debt is rolled over or put into the capital markets. MUFG acted as the documentation bank and global facility agent on the deal. The other banks were SMBC, Norinchukin, Natixis, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole and First Abu Dhabi Bank.
Marubeni is Japan’s largest conglomerate and for this scheme tied up with China’s Jinko Solar, the largest global PV module manufacturer in 2016. Sterling and Wilson is the EPC Contractor. It is wrapping the deal including the Jinko panels. ADWEA will owns 60% of the project company. ADWEA was advised by Alderbrook Finance, Fichtner and Akin Gump. The Marubeni/Jinko team was advised by Norton Rose Fulbright, while the lenders were advised by Shearman & Sterling. Other advisers were JLT, Sgurr Energy and Operis.