Germany’s Umweltbank offers standardized financing for solar PPAs

From pv magazine Germany.

Power purchase agreements (PPAs) are the next step towards financing subsidy-free utility scale solar in Germany and sustainable development lender Umweltbank wants to help the developers of such facilities obtain finance.

Projects with a guaranteed, 20-year feed-in tariff – or a top-up premium tariff – find it easier to gain finance than installations intended to generate income using a PPA that has to be negotiated with electricity off-takers.

Nürnberg-based Umweltbank has developed a financing product intended for solar ground mounted systems that includes a power purchase agreement. If a PPA with a minimum term of five years is available at a fixed price, a loan with a term of up to 25 years may be granted, Umweltbank said. Applicants require only a project guarantee of the type which is standard across the industry, and a creditworthy off-taker.

“The bank responds … to the demand of industrial electricity customers and traders for real green electricity,” said an Umweltbank statement.

The move comes ten years after Umweltbank started offering standardized contracts for FIT-backed solar projects and the lender claims to have more than 20 years’ experience of financing PV projects.