The Solar Technical Working Group under the Climate Bond Standard and Certification Scheme have today published criteria for solar assets for bond certification.
According to the Wall Street Journal and BloombergBusinessWeek, MidAmerican Energy's Solar Star Inc last Thursday issued a $1 billion bond to finance solar plant construction. They had been signalling a $700 million bond, so this suggests take-up was strong.
Fund manager Foresight Investment has issued a £60m bond - Senior Secured index-linked notes with a 21 year maturity - with the funds being used to refinance four of the solar parks it has developed in the UK. The solar parks are FIT-accredited with aggregate output of 15.70MW.
French semiconductor manufacturer Soitec has issued a South African Rand denominated bond worth $111m to help finance the construction of a 44MW concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) solar plant in
> US utility ConEd are in the process of placing $220m of senior secured fixed-rate notes, similar to covered bonds, in the 4(2) Private Placement market. Proceeds refinance 110MW of US solar projects.
