Trina Solar announced on April 1st that it has signed a set of binding agreements, including a Share Purchase Agreement and a Bridge Loan Facility Agreement, with Bluefield Solar Income Fund Limited for the Company's 49.99 MW solar power plant in Norfolk, UK, for a maximum consideration of approximately GBP59.1 million (equivalent to approximately $87.7 million) with a retention of GBP3 million (equivalent to approximately $4.4 million) contingent on certain conditions under the SPA.
The Bridge Loan Facility Agreement is to finance the project until the sale is closed. The sales revenue will not be recognized until the conditions set forth in the SPA are met and the share transfer is completed.
The 49.99 MW solar power plant using Trina Solar's 196,627 modules commenced construction in the third quarter of 2014 and was connected to the grid in the first quarter of 2015. It is entitled to receive 1.4 Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs) per megawatt-hour (MWh). As built, the project can supply clean energy to up to 14,000 UK homes per year.
"The sale of this project is in full alignment with our strategy in overseas markets to build and sell power generation assets at attractive return. This is the third utility-scale solar power plant that we have constructed and sold in the UK for a cumulative capacity of 73.76 MW, demonstrating our global team capabilities in project development and execution," said Mr. Jifan Gao, Chairman and CEO of Trina Solar. "Besides our ongoing developments in the UK, we are also building several projects in Japan and are actively building our presence potentially in other markets for which we will provide updates as and when appropriate. This transaction provides us with additional capital to fund our growing global downstream projects business. With accelerating momentum in our domestic and overseas markets, we are on track to meet our 2015 target to connect a portfolio of projects totaling between 700 MW to 750 MW."
