Mizuho Bank is proud to have acted as mandated lead arranger in the financing of Qatar’s largest solar photovoltaic power project.
Jointly financed with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), the project finance transaction will assist in the building, maintenance and operation of the 10km2 Al Kharsaa Solar PV Power Project in western Qatar.
To enable the structuring of this transaction, a special purpose vehicle known as Siraj1 was formed by the project sponsors, Siraj Energy (jointly owned by Qatar Electricity & Water Company and Qatar Petroleum), Marubeni Corporation, and Total Solar International. Siraj1 has a 25-year power purchase agreement with the Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) for the energy produced via this plant.
Tony Hable, Director, ESFD at Mizuho Bank commented, “Our extensive knowledge and track record within the power sector combined with our longstanding client relationships contributed to the successful structuring and financial close of this landmark transaction. We are proud to have played a leading role in addressing climate change and the transition to a low-carbon economy.”
Over and above the role of mandated lead arranger, Mizuho’s additional roles also included swap counterparty, market hedge provider, commercial facility agent, JBIC facility agent, offshore security trustee, offshore account bank, JBIC coordinator, documentation bank and technical Bank.
The project will be Qatar’s largest renewable energy project to date with a capacity of 800MWp, and is one of the largest projects in the world to utilise bifacial solar panels (able to transform sunlight into electrical energy on both its top and bottom sides). Once constructed, the project is capable of meeting approximately 10% of the country’s peak energy demand thereby reducing its CO2 output by 26 million tons over the project life.
Qatar currently relies primarily on gas -fired power generation for the majority of its electricity demand. However, a key part of the country achieving sustainable economic growth as outlined in its Qatar National Vision 2030 is to diversify its electric power supply to further renewable energy resources.