Deutsche Bank to lend US$1 billion for Japan solar
projects
Jun 10, 2014 - Andy Colthorpe - pv-tech.org
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Deutsche
Bank has revealed its intention to lend
around US$1 billion to companies developing
solar projects in Japan over the next 12
to 18 months. Image: Solar Frontier. |
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A director at Deutsche Bank has revealed that the
company plans to lend around US$1 billion for the
construction of up to six solar power projects in
Japan over the next 12 to 18 months.
Last week PV Tech reported that the Spanish developer
Gestamp Solar will build its first large-scale solar
project in Japan, with Deutsche Bank providing a
non-recourse construction loan worth around US$110
million for the project. This is in addition to other
recent lending activity in solar by the German bank,
including a deal with Conergy worth US$60 million,
for global expansion, that was announced yesterday.
The latest news was reported by Bloomberg following
an interview with Hans Van Der Sande, the director
of Deutsche Bank’s Tokyo-based structured products
division. Van Der Sande referred to the first two
years of Japan’s feed-in tariff (FiT) programme
as a “gold rush” and said that as FiT
rates dropped, “the smaller people are leaving
and the real players are staying”.
Van Der Sande did not reveal the interest rates
applicable to the loans but rates in Japan are currently
at an all-time low. He did say however that Deutsche
Bank was being approached by non-Japanese companies
that are interested in projects in Japan but are “having
difficulty” getting finance from Japanese banks.
According to Bloomberg, Deutsche Bank will lend the
US$1 billion for three to six projects within the
next year and a half.
Tokyo-based analyst Dr Hiroshi Matsukawa of RTS
PV confirmed in a recent interview with PV Tech’s
sister publication Solar Business Focus that Japanese
banks tend to strongly favour projects made with
domestically produced content over foreign imports.
He said that while access to finance with Chinese-made
panels, for example was not unheard of, it was far
less common than lending to projects by Japanese
companies, using Japanese-branded modules and other
equipment.
Elsewhere, Deutsche Bank analyst Vishal Shah put
out a research note last month to the effect that
in markets that are approaching grid parity, the
bank expects the amount of long-term investment into
solar via yield cos to rise. Yield cos allow investors
to buy into an aggregated portfolio of solar generation
assets to receive a regular dividend. Shah said that
over the next 12 to 18 months, yield cos will be “the
most significant positive catalyst for the solar
sector”. According to Shah, as many as six
more yield co financial structures of the type launched
by SunEdison could arrive on the market in the coming
period.
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