Top Czech solar developer scores €15.3M from Darby

September 2, 2009 - by Emma Ritch, Cleantech Group

U.S.-based investor says Energy 21 plans to reach 40 MW of installed capacity this year in Central and Eastern Europe.

Czech Republic-based Energy 21 received initial equity today from a multi-tranche €15.3 million ($21.8 million) investment from the Darby Converging Europe Mezzanine Fund.

Privately held Energy 21, a subsidiary of Slovakia's Solarland, builds and operates photovoltaic solar power plants in Central and Eastern Europe. The company has 10 MW of installed capacity but expects to reach 40 megawatts by the end of this year.

To date, Energy 21 has concentrated on the South Moravia and South Bohemia region of the Czech Republic. In South Bohemia, it expects to connect a 3.5 MW project in the fall in Protivín, and completed a 2.85 MW plant in Dívčice in December. South Moravia, the area with the highest sunlight intensity, is home to a 2.2 MW plant expected to be completed this month in Hrušovany.

Energy 21 buys thin-film amorphous silicon PV modules from Kaneka and BangkokSolar.

The funding is expected to help Energy 21 begin installing PV roofing systems. The company also wants to grow its European portfolio and begin projects with other forms of renewable energy. Energy 21 has 50 employees.

Founded in 2007, the company has been financed to date by Czech investors and banks.

The funding came from Darby Overseas Investments, the private equity arm of San Mateo, Calif.-based Franklin Templeton Investments.

In 2007, Darby invested €16.40 million in Poland's Zaklady Tluszczowe Bodaczow, which supplies rapeseed oil to the bio-diesel industry (see Solar continues to take in cash). In 2008, Darby invested Rs 70 crore ($17.8 million) in Bangalore, India-based Bhoruka Power, which develops small hydro and wind power generation projects (see eSolar gets Googled).

Other investments include a hydro- and biomass-fired thermal power plant in northern Brazil, and a South Korean wind farm.