Project detail - Solar Assets Latin America Pte

Who is our prospective customer?

Entoria Energy Latin America (“EELA” or “Entoria”) and FMO will co-invest in Solar Assets Latin America Pte (“SALA”). SALA is a vehicle that has been established to hold solar assets developed by EELA. EELA is an established as a pan Latin America & Caribbean (“LAC”) distributed solar energy developer, a subsidiary of Entoria Energy Group, a privately held global developer, investor and operator with a leading track record in distributed solar across Europe, Asia and LAC. EELA’s assets are predominantly located in Colombia, with the remainder of the exposure comprising of Ecuador, Panama and Mexico. The off takers of the platform are creditworthy Commercial & Industrial (“C&I”) clients across the region under long-term Power Purchase Agreements (“PPAs”).

What is our funding objective?

The funding objective of this investment is to satisfy a near-term capital need to start construction (and continue development) of advanced solar projects in EELA’s pipeline. FMO intends to provide equity funding for an investment up to USD 15 mln. This investment supports SMEs in greening their energy consumption.

Why do we want to fund this investment?

This opportunity fits well with FMO’s Private Equity Energy strategy of pursuing impactful, 100% green investments within the energy transition and increasing LAC exposure, one of the core geographies within FMO’s investment mandate. The platform will address the growing energy need in the region while providing affordable and stable energy sources. Ultimately, the increase of distributed energy capacity plays a crucial role in reducing dependency on carbon intense energy sources. This transaction is expected to contribute to via local job creation and provision of clean & affordable energy.

What is the Environmental and Social categorization rationale?

The potential adverse environmental & social (E&S) impacts of activities of SALA may be moderate to significant if unmitigated, but not unprecedented and largely reversable and manageable with standard mitigation measures. Therefore, the E&S risk of this investment opportunity are categorized as cat B+. As SALA will realize captive solar PV installations at the sites of commercial and industrial off-takers, both rooftop and ground-mount, the risks to be mitigated may vary from site to site but will not involve risks related to land acquisition and land-use change. Therefore, the IFC Performance Standards (PS) triggered are typically PS 1 to 3, and occasionally 4. Performance Standards 5 to 8 will normally not be triggered by the projects realized by SALA. The main E&S risks to be managed and mitigated relate to working conditions and health & safety (both electrical safety and working at heights), and the contractor supervision that comes with this. The company has an environmental and social management system, which will be amended and approved as part of this investment opportunity, as will the establishment of dedicated E&S capacity in the company.