Greenalia’s financial close for the biomass plant in Curtis-Teixeiro
Greenalia Biomass Power Curtis-Teixeiro S.L.U. has signed off a loan of 125 million euros to finance its biomass electric power production plant in the town of Curtis-Teixeiro (A Coruña, Galicia). The financing provided for this project has obtained the highest green rating, E1, as a green loan, according to the evaluation made by the Standard & Poor’s agency.
After months of intense negotiations and several market interferences, Greenalia team has formalized a structured loan through a project finance and a mezzanine tranche, to finance the start-up of a biomass power generation plant that is being built in the town of Coruña, and that will have a capacity of approximately 50MW, on a plot of 103,000m2, and will generate 324 GWh per year from forest waste collected within a radius of one hundred kilometers around the new installation.
In the operation, in which Banco Santander acts as agent and a coordinator, the EIB, ICO and Banco Santander itself participated in the Senior tranche of the debt project, and Marguerite fund in the mezzanine tranche. Likewise, the project has a guarantee from the Finnish ECA, Finnvera.
This project belongs to the framework of the Investment Plan for Europe, known as the “Juncker Plan”, and it is the first biomass plant financed by the EIB under the framework of this plan.
To produce this energy, the plant will use forest biomass. In this way, the project will contribute to the maintenance of the forests of the area and the prevention of fires, encouraging the collection of small-sized wood waste that is normally discarded for industrial use. The biomass used by the plant will come from forests certified by the FSC or PEFC systems.
Once in operation, scheduled for 2020, the Curtis-Teixeiro plant will increase the generation of energy from renewable sources and thus meet the objectives of reducing carbon dioxide emissions marked by the National Action Plan of Renewable Energies (PANER) 2011-2020.
In addition to the positive environmental impact, this project will generate economic and social benefits, promoting job creation and economic growth in rural areas. The construction of the plant has allowed the hiring of 400 people and, once it is underway, it will create 35 permanent and around 100 indirect jobs within the waste supply chain.
The financing of the Curtis Biomass Plant is a key milestone for the fulfillment of the company’s business plan, since it will generate revenues of 33 million euros and an EBITDA of more than 16 million euros in 2021; assuring for the group a recurring income of 910 million for the sale of energy, and 295 for the sale of biomass, over a period of 25 years.
Also, Greenalia does not stop in its activity, it is expected that in September the company will resume with the financing of the 182MW of wind awarded in the last pay auction. Jointly, the Curtis biomass project and the wind projects together, will suppose a turnover by sale of energy of 1,600 million euros over 25 years, estimating an income of 57 million in 2021 and an EBITDA of 35 million, which together with the current group activity will represent an annual income of 110 million euros and an EBITDA of 41.5 million.
The recent agreement reached by the European Parliament, to set a binding renewable energy target of 32% by 2030 at the EU level, is an incentive in Greenalia’s goal to become one of the leading companies in the economy change towards a more sustainable one as one of the leading independent energy producers (IPP) in Spain, with exclusive production through renewable electric production technologies.