The announcement by FRV follows the signing of a $70 million project finance arrangement with DNB Group and Intesa Sanpaolo, along with $24 million of additional funding tranche from Santander through its Asset and Capital Structuring team.

Jacinta marks the first solar power purchase agreement signed with Uruguay’s state-owned company UTE (Administración Nacional de Usinas y Trasmisiones Eléctricas) and is the first FRV project to reach financial close in the region. Once completed, the facility will be one of the largest solar projects in Latin America. It will generate enough electricity to supply approximately 35,000 homes in the area and remove 74,142 MT of CO2 emissions per year.

“Jacinta will provide a low-cost source of power to the region and help further Uruguay’s goal in order to transform its current mix of energy over the next few year with an increasing penetration of renewable sources”, said Rafael Benjumea, CEO at FRV. “It will also deliver considerable benefits to the local economy, including the creation of more than 200 jobs during the construction phase and the use of significant local content.”

The Jacinta solar farm project, which is due to be completed by May 2015, is part of the Uruguan government’s sustainable energy policy to promote solar power in the country. The Jacinta project will be constructed by OHL Industrial, a subsidiary of the Spanish group OHL, with solar photovoltaic panels supplied by BYD.