CREC secures $100 million loan for solar rollout

MANILA, Philippines — Citicore Renewable Energy Corp. (CREC) is set to accelerate the rollout of its solar projects after securing a $100 million funding commitment from a Singapore-based debt financing company.

CREC said it has signed a landmark financing deal for its solar development vehicle Citicore Solar Energy Corp. with Pentagreen Capital, a sustainable infrastructure debt financing partnership established by shareholders HSBC and Temasek.

The $100 million Mezzanine Construction Green Loan Facility structured by Pentragreen will have an initial tranche commitment of $30 million.

The initial tranche will provide funding for a portfolio of six solar power projects across Luzon with a capacity of 490 megawatts (MW).

These six projects include the construction of four greenfield projects, as well two other projects that have been recently completed.

CREC said the funding would enable the company to allocate capital efficiently to accelerate the development of its renewable energy project pipeline.

As an integrated renewable energy platform, CREC plans to roll out one gigawatt (GW) of renewable energy capacity annually in the next five years.

“Pentagreen’s partnership with Citicore Renewable is a vote of confidence in our ability to scale up, enabling us to achieve our planned one gigawatt project roll out this year, in line with our five gigawatt in five years roadmap,” CREC president and CEO Oliver Tan said.

“We appreciate Pentagreen’s support for our solar projects as it unlocks the development of our renewable energy capacity pipeline in an accelerated manner,” he said.

CREC said Pentagreen’s commitment is designed to enable mobilization of additional debt funding to support the construction of the company’s ready-to-build projects.

It comes with a greenshoe option to increase the committed amount to $100 million to fund additional greenfield solar projects and the expansion of CREC’s portfolio to over one GW.

“We are delighted to partner with Citicore Renewable to support its ambition of becoming a leading green electricity provider in the Philippines and are honored to welcome them as the first addition to our own portfolio,” Pentagreen Capital CEO Marat Zapparov said.

CREC’s projects will sell green electricity to a combination of long-term and spot market customers, in support of the government’s renewable energy push.

CREC was also recently awarded 916.58-MWac of renewable energy capacity following the competitive selection process for the Department of Energy’s Green Energy Auction Program.