Quercus plans $600m Iran solar project

LONDON: Specialist renewable energy investor Quercus will invest over half a billion euros in a solar power project in Iran, with construction to start in the first half of 2018, the company’s chief executive said.

The planned 600-megawatt (MW) plant, located in central Iran, will be the sixth largest globally, behind projects of up to 1.5 gigawatts (GW) in China and India.

Diego Biasi, Chief Executive of Quercus, which has a track record of investing in renewable energy in Europe, said the firm had decided to go for such a big project to get an endorsement from Iran’s Ministry of Energy. “This is a project of national interest, so we got special support. We had enough investors interested so instead of splitting that across smaller projects which wouldn’t have given us the same relationship with the Ministry, we decided to go for one,” he said in a phone interview on Tuesday. The hope was this would lead to more solar projects. Established in 2010, independently-owned Quercus has a portfolio of around 40 renewable energy plants across Europe.

The Iran project is its first investment outside Europe, and came in response to client demand, Biasi said.

Under the terms of the agreement signed by Quercus and Iran’s Ministry of Energy, the firm will be responsible for the construction, development and operation of the plant.

Construction is expected to take three years, with each 100 MW standalone lot becoming operational and connecting to the grid every six months, to mitigate the risk for investors.

Rather than investing via a fund structure, Quercus will set up a project company and investors will hold shares via a private placement. It has already attracted interest from private and institutional investors, including sovereign funds. — Reuters