The deal took 18 months to negotiate and emerged from a partnership comprising SolarVision, New Energy Capital, Cleantech Infrastructure Fund, Q Cells North America, Finance Fund and JP Morgan Chase & Co. The project will provide enough energy to power around 500 homes, supplying about 8% of Celina’s annual energy requirement.

The NMTC programme assists economically distressed communities throughout the US through the financing of business investments. With the Celina deal, SolarVision has received a combined total of $23 million in NMTC, making it one of the largest NMTC developers for solar power in the country.

Don Saul, president of SolarVision, said NMTC deals are  “incredibly intricate and complex to execute” and requires “an extreme degree of specialised knowledge”. He added: “It was a matter of pulling together and coordinating the project with the right partners who could help us allocate the people and resources we needed to successfully complete the Celina solar system project and adhere to the requirements of the new market tax credits.”

Finance Fund secured both state and federal NMTC for the Celina solar power project, covering the entire transaction, while JPMorgan Chase & Co monetized the NMTC. The balance of funding was provided by New Energy Capital, which joined the project as an investor and enlisted Q.Cells as an EPC and panel provider. A bridge financing loan provided by Q.Cells - which is soon to be acquired by South Korea's Hanwha Group after filing for bankruptcy - brought the deal to a close.

Two years ago, SolarVision received $5.3 million in NMTC from Finance Fund in return for five solar energy projects.

Written by Robin Whitlock