An Ohio-based integrated industrial solar solutions company has selected two global banks as its financial advisors to help it secure more than $6 billion in financing for solar thermal projects across the Southwestern United States.
Solar Trust of America said Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. will provide financial advisory services to help it qualify for the competitive award of the Department of Energy loan guarantees.
The banks will also develop models for debt and equity project financing for Solar Trust’s proposed solar thermal power plants in California and Nevada.
Together with its development subsidiary, Berkeley-based Solar Millennium LLC, and global business partners Solar Millenium AG and MAN Ferrostaal AG, Solar Trust has already applied for certification with the Energy Department and plans to begin construction in 2010.
The company has entered into 20-year power purchase agreements with Southern California Edison for the development and construction of two 242-megawatt power plants, with the option to include another 242-MW plant, for a total of up to 726 MW of capacity. These plants are expected to begin operation between 2013 and 2014.
Solar Trust has also signed a memorandum of understanding with Nevada Energy for the development and construction of at least one 242-MW solar thermal power plant.
Uwe Schmidt, chairman and chief executive of Solar Trust of America, noted that the development and the construction of the thermal plants would provide economic benefits to both California and Nevada.
“Each of these plants features our proven, bankable parabolic trough technology and will include investments of more than $1 billion per plant project,” he said.
Each plant will create up to 800 new jobs during the initial construction phase and approximately 100 permanent jobs for operations, maintenance and management, he added.
Solar Trust is one of the first solar industry integrators that provide a complete concentrated solar power solution for the development, financing, construction, operation and management of utility-scale solar thermal plants.
The company currently has solar thermal energy power plants in advanced stages of development, such as in Ridgecrest, Palen and Blythe in California, and in Amargosa Valley in Nevada.
- Natassia Y. Laforteza
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