Sonnedix and French financier Natixis have closed senior financing facilities to bring forward up to 100MWp of solar in Chile.

The deal will see independent power producer (IPP) Sonnedix advance on a portfolio of solar projects backed by Chile’s Small Distributed Means of Generation (known as PMGD under its Spanish acronym) programme, which supports smaller-scale renewables with a regulated, stabilised price for exported power.

Sonnedix is to complete an initial four PMGD-backed projects with a total capacity of 25MW, while the financing structure of its deal with Natixis allows for further PMGD projects to be added at a later date should they meet pre-set eligibility criteria.

A further two projects with a combined capacity of 14MWp are to be added to the portfolio later this month, and Sonnedix expects to add a further 61MWp of projects at a later date.

Axel Thiemann, chief executive at Sonnedix, said the financing will allow the IPP to continue to expand its presence in Chile’s emerging solar market.

“We continue actively seeking opportunities to invest and develop projects that will help achieve key strategic goals for the country’s power system,” he said.

Aitor Alava, managing director and head of infrastructure finance for Latin America at Natixis, said the deal was the fourth such loan portfolio term financing arrangement arranged by the company in the past year.

The firm also signed a similarly-structured deal with local developer CVE Chile in December last year.

The latest edition of PV Tech’s downstream journal PV Tech Power includes a feature on the potential of Chile’s solar market as the country pursues renewable energy targets, which can be read in full here.