Royalla Solar Farm in Australia: supporting renewable energy

Societe Generale acted as Sole Mandated Lead Arranger and Sole Hedge Provider in the refinancing of the 20 megawatt (MW) Royalla Solar Farm photovoltaic project in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT).

Fully built and operational in 2014, Royalla was the largest operating solar farm in Australia at the time to be connected to Australia’s national grid. The 20MWac solar farm is expected to generate an average of 37,000 megawatt hours of solar energy per annum over its project life and provide enough electricity to power approximately 4,500 households in Canberra each year.

In addition to generating electricity supply, Royalla will also save over half a million tonnes of carbon emissions every year.

Royalla Solar Farm is a strategic project for ACT and a significant renewable energy development for Australia. It will help ACT Government achieve its target of 90% of electricity supplied by renewable sources by 2020.

DIF (www.dif.eu) acquired the operating Royalla project in January 2016 from FRV, who was the developer of the project and is a leading global operator in photovoltaic and thermosolar energy. DIF is an independent fund management company that invests in infrastructure assets globally including PPPs, renewable energy projects and core infrastructure projects.

“Royalla is a high quality solar PV project developed by FRV under the ACT’s successful reverse-auction feed-in tariff program for large-scale solar. Being of a size that suited working with a single financial institution, DIF was attracted to Societe Generale’s pragmatic approach and ability to provide a long term financing solution not commonly available in the local market,” said Marko Kremer, Senior Director of DIF Australia.

This is Societe Generale’s first solar power project in Asia Pacific and well complements its existing wind, hydro and geothermal portfolio. Societe Generale leverages on its renewable energy project finance and interest rate hedging expertise to contribute to the success of Royalla Solar Farm project, and consequently supporting sustainable development in Australia.