Société Générale & Investment Banking has arranged the financing of France’s largest photovoltaic solar power facility. Construction and operation will be carried out by French-based energy company GDF Suez and two financial partners SEIEF and EuroFideme 2.

GDF Suez, SEIEF and EuroFideme 2 mandated SG CIB and Groupe Caisse d’Epargne to act as lenders for the facility. SG CIB also acted as hedging bank and agent.

The photovoltaic solar power facility will have a total output of 33 MWp with approximately 145,000 photovoltaic panels producing 43.5 million kilowatt hours per year, equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 14,500 households (excluding heating). This represents a saving close to 120,000 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.

The commissioning of this photovoltaic solar power facility – located in Curbans, in the French Alpes de Haute-Provence – is scheduled for August 2011.

In 2007, SG CIB was one of the first investment banks to create a team dedicated to renewable energy for wind farm projects, biomass and solar energies.

Energy finance transactions that closed during 2009 included the SunRay Montalto di Castro project – the largest solar project finance deal in Italy to date – as well as various solar energy transactions in France for EDF EN in Manosque and Saint Tulle, and for Acciona in Spain.