SUSI Partners, acting on behalf of the SUSI Energy Transition Fund (“SETF”), has secured a Euro-denominated senior debt package for a fully merchant 167 MW Polish renewables portfolio from Swedish P Capital Partners (“PCP”). The vast majority of projects will start construction in early 2024 with the entire portfolio of solar PV and onshore wind projects expected to be fully operational in early 2025.
All projects were brought to ready-to-build stage by SETF portfolio company Luneos Green Energy (“LGE”), a joint venture between SUSI and leading Polish energy-as-a-service company Luneos, which was established in late 2021. Since then, LGE has built a pipeline of over 1 GW of solar PV and onshore wind projects and has now secured debt financing for a first tranche of projects. LGE continues to explore different route-to-market options for the remainder of the portfolio.
The successful process for a Euro-denominated, long-term senior financing for a fully merchant portfolio in Poland represents a unique achievement and at the same hints at the rapid maturing of the Polish renewables market. The process was further enabled by the strong attention paid by LGE to environmental and social risk factors, which includes a rigorous screening of supply chains to comply with SUSI’s responsible procurement requirements.
With the successful debt raise for a distributed renewables portfolio in Chile and this Polish financing in the space of a few months, SUSI has reestablished itself firmly in the lending market, as the Fund’s development platforms continue to successfully drive their project portfolios towards the ready-to-build stage. Today, SETF holds a well-diversified portfolio across a wide spectrum of energy transition themes, including clean energy generation, energy efficiency, battery energy storage, customer energy solutions, and electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
