Actis today announced that its renewable energy platform Zuma Energía, has secured close to US$300 million project financing for the construction of two solar farms in Mexico, with a total capacity of 337 MW.
The solar parks Orejana and Santa María, which will be built in Sonora and Chihuahua, respectively, were awarded in the Second Long-term Electricity Auction. Once operational the farms will supply over 500,000 homes with clean energy and mitigate over 280,000 thousand tons of CO2 emission per year, from over 1 million solar panels.
The Orejana solar park, in Hermosillo, Sonora, will have a capacity of 158 MW and the Santa María solar park in Galeana, Chihuahua will have a capacity of 179 MW. Zuma Energia is exploring opportunities with local SMEs and value chains for the construction, operational and maintenance stages of the projects, in order to generate employment and long-term economic benefits.
These latest closes follow the financial closure of Reynosa Wind Farm in August, one of the largest wind farms in Latin America with a total capacity of 424 MW. Reynosa Wind Farm was the first project to achieve financial close on project financing of all projects awarded Power Purchase Awards in the long term electricity auctions held in 2016.
In addition to the Orejana, Santa Maria and Reynosa Wind Farm, Zuma Energía has a 50MW wind farm in operation in Oaxaca. This portfolio has positioned Zuma as a leading Mexican provider of clean energy certificates in the country -2.3 million a year.
Actis created Zuma in 2014, in three years the company has secured an 800MW portfolio. Actis holds an 80% and Mesomerica Investments holds 20% stake in Zuma Energia.
Actis is one of the most significant private investors in renewable energy projects across Latin America. The firm has committed over US$4.8 billion in 32 energy companies across 25+ countries generating 17GW of energy capacity and directly impacted 68 million consumers.
Adrian Katzew, CEO of Zuma Energía, commented: “At Zuma Energía we are very grateful for the trust deposited upon us by our shareholder and lenders, and the dedication from all the banks and advisors to establish the principles of these new financial structures. Also, my gratitude to the extraordinary work performed by Zuma´s team.”
Michael Harrington, Board Member of Zuma and Partner and Head of Mexico at Actis commented: “We are seeing the energy reforms play out and attract new players and international funding. Mexico has compelling fundamentals for investing in power generation, including superior natural resources, an evolving and supportive regulatory framework and a deep project finance capacity.”
Project financing was secured through Bancomext, Banobras, Nafin and the North American Development Bank (Nadbank).
