Enel's solar panel maker 3Sun inks EUR-560m loan to expand to 3 GW

Enel Green Power’s solar panel factory in Italy has signed an agreement to secure up to EUR 560 million (USD 602m) in loans to finance the capacity expansion to 3 GW per year, Italian utility Enel SpA (BIT:ENEL) said on Monday.

The 3Sun factory in Catania, Sicily, currently has the annual capacity to manufacture 200 MW of heterojunction (HJT) bifacial panels.

3Sun signed a project financing agreement with Italian bank UniCredit to obtain a EUR-475-million senior term loan and an EUR-85-million VAT loan for the expansion. The senior term loan is partially counter-guaranteed by Italy’s export credit agency SACE.

The funding will contribute to the development of the so-called TANGO, or iTaliAN pv Giga factOry, project, aimed at building Europe’s largest manufacturer of high-performance bifacial PV modules.

The 3Sun factory will first get a capacity boost to 400 MW in September 2023. The 3-GW-per-year production line is expected to be fully operational by July 2024, Enel said.

“With this project we are demonstrating the feasibility and scalability, including financially, of a sustainable industrial model that can be replicated for other factories of this type to be developed in the coming years in other countries as well," commented Enel CEO Francesco Starace.

Incentivised by the Inflation Reduction Act, the Enel group also plans to build a solar panel factory in the US. The facility would have an with an annual capacity of at least 3 GW and potentially up to 6 GW. The company hopes to launch construction in mid-2023 and start producing the first panels by the end of 2024.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.075)

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!