NED Lopburi Solar Plant

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The Changwat power project is a 73MW solar photovoltaic (PV) project in Lopburi Province, Thailand. The project was designed to utlize over 540,000 high-grade, thin-film solar panels. The project was expected to be expanded to 84MW in June 2012. Annual output was estimated at 105 GWh. Project company was the Natural Energy Development Co. Ltd. (33%), a company with sponsors CLP Holdings (HKG:0002), Diamong Generating Asia (a subsidiary of Mitsubishi (TYO:8058)) (33%), and Electricity Generating Co (33%). All generated power was to be sold to the state-owned Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) under a 25-year power purchase agreement. Sharp Corp (TYO:6753) was to be the EPC contractor. The project was to become operational late 2012. The project eventually became operational mid-December 2011 in junst 18 months. Construction was done by Sharp (Japan), Ital-Thai Development, and Ital-Thai Engineering under an EPC contract. Construction started in August 2010. Total project cost was US$ 250 million. Financing comprised of THB3.48bn 12-year and 6 months syndicated term loan debt, THB1.9bn term loan and THB2.2bn of equity. Mandated arrangers for the syndicated facility are Kasikornbank, Bangkok Bank and Siam Commercial Bank. Financial close occured on 17 Jun 2010. The Asian Development Bank was also involved in the financing (Baht 2 billion/US$70 million). http://www.ned.co.th/news2010-10.html