Enertis provides Independent Engineering services during the financing of the “Los Llanos Solar Forests 1 and 2” in Colombia

Enertis, a specialist in the provision of consulting, engineering and quality control assurance in renewable energy projects on a global scale, is working on the review of the Los Llanos Solar Forests 1 and 2” in Colombia. Both plants, located in the Colombian municipality of Puerto Gaitán, are the first Project Finance approved in the country for Non-Conventional Renewable Energy projects (NCRE). The sponsor, Trina Solar and the financing party, the National Development Financing Entity (Financiera de Desarrollo Nacional), have trusted Enertis to review, evaluate and report on any technical, engineering and operational risks associated with both projects and their possible economic impact on “Los Llanos”, in accordance with international practice and standards.

Recently, a second senior loan was approved of 24 billion Colombian pesos (7 million US dollars), which will finance the construction of the solar park “Bosques de los Llanos 2”; a project that is preceded by the approval at the end of May of another loan of the same value for the project “Bosques Solares Los Llanos 1”. The plants shall have a power generation capability of 27.2 MWp each, will be connected to the same substation and will have the same network operator. The sponsor of both projects is the Chinese company Trina Solar Energy España, through its branch Changzhou Trina Solar Energy, the second largest company in the world for the production of solar panels.

The approval of the solar park “Bosque de los Llanos 1”, was the first project of Non-Conventional Renewable Energy (NCRE) financed with Project Finance for the country, meaning the financing is made against the project cashflows and not against

the balances of the company that executes it. Now, its sister plant “Los Llanos 2”, becomes the second NCRE project financed in this way.

Enertis has been working in Colombia since 2016, providing engineering design services or Technical Due Diligence. Up until now, the company has participated in over 1.3GW of projects in the country, having reviewed over 30 plants as an independent engineer in acquisition processes, as well as participating in the first financings of NCRE in Colombia using Project Finance.

In Colombia, Enertis has also elaborated engineering designs (conceptual, basic and detailed) for over 350MW worth of projects. Additionally, it has provided services for Property Engineering (Supervision) through the review of engineering designs of construction detail and supervising the building and on-site launch of some of the first utility-scale projects in operation in the country (Yumbo Solar and Bolívar).

The Regional Manager for Mexico, Central America and Colombia at Enertis, Alvaro Velasco, points out that the Latinamerican country “has very good growth prospects”, and celebrated the situation of the company having “seen significant interest on the part of local actors and international clients, which is turning into a large volume of very interesting development projects which already surpass 8 GW”.