German group secures finance for Polish solar energy plants

German group Sunfarming has secured 20 million euros in debt financing for the construction of 40 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) parks in Poland.

The Polish subsidiary of the firm, Sunfarming Polska, plans to expand its existing solar portfolio in in 2019 by producing at least 40 MW of power.

The first projects to be financed via the debt are four PV plants in Ostrołęka. In addition, Sunfarming Polska will use part of the funds to develop new projects with a total capacity of 5 MW.

Three Sunfarming solar parks, each with a 1 MW capacity, are to be built near Łask in Łódź, and another two in Lower Silesia near Ząbkowice Śląskie. Sunfarming won the tenders for these projects in June 2017, and all PV parks benefit from a 15-year ‘contract for difference’ with the Polish Energy Agency URE, which guarantees a fixed feed-in tariff for each kWh produced by paying the difference to the market price.

“We are pleased to announce the closing of this transaction,” said Martin Tauschke, managing director of Sunfarming.” The bridging line enables us to consistently implement our strategy in Poland and accelerate our international growth. With a planned PV capacity of 1.2 GW by 2020 but with currently only about 360 MW of installed capacity, Poland represents an important future market for us.”