CDB loan to support Sky Solar investment in photovoltaic energy projects totaling over 300 MW (link to project ID #37358 and #85346)

On 26 June 2012, Chinese company Sky Solar, the Chilean company Sigdo Koppers and China Development Bank signed a framework agreement for the investment and construction of photovoltaic energy projects in northern Chile totaling over 300 MW. Outlined in this preliminary agreement, Sky Solar would invest about 900 million USD in these photovoltaic energy projects with financial support from China Development Bank, and Sky Solar would partner with Sigdo Koppers for project implementation. This framework agreement was signed by Sky Solar CEO Amy Zhang, the Planning Manager of the China Development Bank Guo Mingshe, and the General Manager of Engineering and Construction of Sigdo Koppers Cristian Brinck. According to news sources, CDB issued a 10 billion RMB loan to Sky Solar in October 2012 for downstream development, although the amount intended to be used for these photovoltaic energy projects is unclear. According to news sources, in January 2013 Sky Solar announced plans to increase the investment from 900 million USD to 1.36 billion USD, and in July 2013 Chile's foreign investment committee CIE (Comité de Inversiones Extranjeras) approved investments of 1.23 billion USD proposed by Sky Solar. This project captures the debt financing component from China Development Bank, although the specific loan amount provided by CDB for these photovoltaic energy projects is unclear so the transaction amount has not been coded. For the equity investment from Sky Solar, see linked project ID #37358. On 30 October 2012, Sky Solar broke ground on an 18 MW photovoltaic plant, situated 27 kilometers from the town of Arica. Construction was expected to last 15 months. This project is known as Arica 1 or Planta Solar FV Arica I. According to a 2015 discussion paper from Boston University, the investment for this project is 70 million USD. A loan from the Inter-American Development Bank, as well as the China Co-Financing Fund for Latin America and the Caribbean and the Clean Technology Fund (see project #85346) were also supposed to provide this project funding, though the loan was cancelled without disbursements. Despite this groundbreaking ceremony, it does not appear any of the projects have been constructed, as of 2018. Per Sky Solar Holdings' Form 20-F for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2015, construction on their projects in Chile would begin when funding was received (and construction had not yet begun), indicating that as of that date, no disbursements had been made. A lawsuit against Sky Solar Holdings filed in 2018 also indicates no projects in Chile had been built as of the filing, and Sky Solar's milestone page on their website does not mention any projects in Chile being completed, which was updated through 2017. Other Sky Solar projects that had been approved but had not yet begun implementation according to the 2015 BU discussion paper are the following: Solar Sky I (26 MW capacity, 78 million USD investment), Sky Solar II (26 MW capacity, 78 million USD investment), Planta SF Arica I (expansion) (9 MW capacity, 15.4 million USD investment) and Planta SF Arica II (15 MW capacity, 45 million USD investment).

Additional details

Sky Solar Holdings was created out of a November 2014 IPO, with Sky Solar Group the former parent company. Per the Sky Solar Holdings website, the two are no longer formally associated (https://www.skysolarholdings.com/). Thus, while pre-November 2014 documents say "Sky Solar Group" is the project sponsor, Sky Solar Holdings is the current implementing agency, and Arica Solar Generación 1, as its wholly-owned subsidiary, has origin set to "donor." It is assumed Arica Solar Generación 1 remains under Sky Solar Holdings, not Group, because their FY 2015 20-F form and the 2018 lawsuit reference this project in Chile. Although news sources claim an RMB 10 billion loan was disbursed, this is not recorded in any official sources, so AidData has left the status as Pipeline:Pledge.

Number of official sources

8

Number of total sources

18