Cubico Alten Aguascalientes Solar PV Project

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The Cubico Alten Aguascalientes Solar PV Project (the “Project”) includes the construction and operation of two adjacent greenfield photovoltaic (“PV”) power plants, Solem 1 and Solem 2, with total installed capacity of 348MWp (290MW), three electrical substations (two step-up substations and one maneuver substation), and a 6.6 km power transmission line connecting the substations to the national grid.  The maneuver substation will later be handed over to the state-owned power utility, Comisión Federal de Electricidad (“CFE”).  The project will be installed on 15 privately owned and leased lots within a total area of 963.7 hectares, located in the El Llano municipality of Aguascalientes, Mexico.Aguascalientes has a semi-arid climate, and most of El Llano is rural and sparsely populated. Some 1,200 people live in the surrounding communities within a 4 km radius of the Project site.  Most have access to basic services such as roads and electricity but not sewer systems. The site is easily accessible by existing highways and municipal roads.  The total project cost is estimated at US$311 million.  IFC is considering providing loans for up to US$70 million to support the construction of the Project.Both plants will use crystalline silicone panels, supplied by top-tier module manufacturers, mounted on single axis horizontal tracking systems.    The sponsors of the Project are Cubico Sustainable Investments (“Cubico”), a global renewable energy investor, and Alten RE Developments America, B.V. (“Alten”), the subsidiary of Alten Renewable Energy Developments B.V., a solar PV developer incorporated in the Netherlands. The Alten group of companies owns and operates 6 solar PV plants in Spain. The Project will be constructed and operated by the Mexican subsidiary of Grupo Ortiz, a Spanish family-owned construction company.  Alten is an existing IFC client, jointly developing a 120MW Solar PV project in Kogi State of Nigeria (see project #36761 InfraV-MBSO disclosure published December 14, 2015).  Grupo Ortiz will also manage operations and maintenance of the plants.Both Solem 1 and Solem 2 were awarded long term power, clean energy certificates and capacity purchase agreements (“PPAs”) in Mexico’s most recent energy auction, which took place in September 2016.  Following the construction period for both projects, Solem 1 is expected to be commissioned by September 2018 and Solem 2 by June 2019. A subsidiary of CFE will act as off-taker of the Project and counterparty to three separate PPAs for each of Solem 1 and Solem 2: i) a 15-year term for energy sales (MWh); ii) a 20-year term for clean energy certificate (“CELs”) sales; and iii) a 15-year term for capacity (MW).  Once constructed, the Project will be one of the largest solar PV plants in Latin America.