Dubai funding commitments demonstrate rise of corporate solar

With business playing an increasingly prominent role in driving solar power adoption, news has broken of two financing deals in Dubai which are focused on commercial and industrial (C&I) markets.

Emirati solar developer Yellow Door Energy has closed a $65 million financing round to expand its C&I solar leasing and energy efficiency activity. And Dubai peer Adenium claims to have signed off on the Middle East’s first renewable project for industrial self-consumption and net metering financed on a non recourse basis – meaning the plant is used as entire collateral for the loan.

Having secured backing from the International Finance Corporation, Mitsui, Equinor, APICORP and Adenium, a spokesperson for Yellow Door told pv magazine it is examining opportunities in Egypt, Kenya, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain, on top of commitments to invest $70 million in Jordan this year and $20 million in its domestic market.

Announcing the financing round, Yellow Door CEO Jeremy Crane said: “We aim to build 300 MW of solar in the next two years, benefiting hundreds of businesses and the broader economy.”

The press release announcing the Yellow Door funding round did not reveal the scale of Adenium’s commitment but the latter, also based in Dubai, has announced it expects to start commercial operation of a 15.6 MW solar project at Rashadeya in Jordan in the second quarter of this year.

Adenium revealed yesterday it had borrowed from Arab Bank in November to develop the project, which will sell energy to a Lafarge Cement factory on a 15-year, take-or-pay basis. The risk to the offtaker is mitigated by a net metering element which means any unused electricity can be fed into the Jordanian grid – although news has just broken that the nation’s electricity infrastructure is creaking.