EnergyMixx plans €500M for Italy renewable energy

Swiss holding company EnergyMixx Holding (BER:3090885.BE) plans to finance €500 million ($691 million USD) of renewable energy projects in Italy through Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB), the companies said today.

The Italian projects include roughly 105 megawatts of solar photovoltaic and 200 MW of wind energy. EnergyMixx expects to begin construction in the first quarter of 2009 and complete it by 2011.

Under the agreement for non-recourse senior debt project financing, Deutsche Bank’s London office expects to act as structuring bank, hedging bank, sole mandated lead manager and sole mandated lead arranger.

EnergyMixx Chairman Artur Dela said the deal represents a significant change in the company’s focus, from a technology acquirer to an owner and operator of renewable energy assets.

EnergyMixx recently acquired gallium arsenide concentrated photovoltaic technology developer HelioDynamics.

In May, EnergyMixx bought 30 percent of HelioDynamics in an equity-for-shares transaction valued at £2.93 million ($5.2 million USD) (see Governments dole out cash for cleantech). And then in June, EnergyMixx traded £2.27 million worth of shares for the remaining 70-percent stake.

HelioDynamics says its gallium arsenide concentrated photovoltaic technology has the potential to cut the total installed cost of photovoltaics by up to 50 percent on a cost per kilowatt hour basis. The company says its cells have an efficiency range of 27 percent to 36 percent.

EnergyMixx plans to install about 50 MW of capacity with the solar concentrating technology by HelioDynamics.

In August, EnergyMixx raised €21 million by releasing 21.4 million new shares, bringing the total issued to over 100 million shares.