Cero Generation has closed a bank loan for five solar plants in Palencia, northern Spain, totalling 245 MW. Three banks are lending and a ten-year power contract sits underneath. One number is missing: the size of the loan. In a year when almost every Spanish solar financing published its amount, Cero's is one of only two that did not.
Key takeaways
- Cero Generation announced on 12 August 2024 that it had secured a loan from a consortium of Banco Sabadell, Rabobank and ING for a 245 MW portfolio of five utility-scale solar projects in Spain, with the loan amount undisclosed.
- The Cero Generation portfolio comprises the Palencia 1, Pisoraca 2, Pisoraca 3, Palencia 4 and Palencia 5 solar projects in the Palencia region of Spain, which were under construction at the time of the financing.
- The five Cero Generation Palencia plants have a ten-year PPA with an undisclosed technology off-taker.
- Enerdatics records 14 solar debt financings in Spain announced in 2024, of which 12 disclose an amount; Cero Generation's Palencia loan and a Capital Energy C&I financing are the two that do not.
- Among Spanish solar loans in 2024 that disclose both an amount and a capacity, debt ranged from about $0.72 million per MW for BRUC's 842 MW portfolio to about $0.90 million per MWdc for ib vogt's Segovia portfolio.
How much did Spain's solar developers borrow per MW in 2024?
Between roughly $0.7 million and $0.9 million per MW, for the loans that publish enough to tell. Debt per MW is a rough but useful measure: it shows how much of a plant's cost lenders were willing to carry against its contracts and expected output.
Ranked from the lowest to the highest, the four 2024 Spanish solar construction and development loans in Leap that state both an amount and a capacity are:
- BRUC: about $606.6 million for 842 MW, roughly $0.72 million per MW.
- Alantra and Solarig: about $231.8 million for 306 MW, roughly $0.76 million per MW.
- Matrix Renewables: about $190.7 million from Banco Sabadell for 239 MW, roughly $0.80 million per MW.
- ib vogt: about $375 million for 418 MWdc around Segovia, roughly $0.90 million per MWdc.
The spread is narrow because the projects are similar: utility-scale solar plants, built in Spain in the same year, financed by many of the same banks. Differences can come from the contracts behind each plant and how much of its output they cover, which is why ib vogt's Segovia plants borrowed more per MW than larger portfolios.
Why does Cero's loan size matter if it is undisclosed?
Because the gap is itself unusual. Spanish solar lending in 2024 was unusually transparent. Twelve of the 14 financings Enerdatics records published an amount, including single-bank loans and refinancings of operating plants. Cero's is the only one of the 14 for a utility-scale portfolio under construction that leaves the figure out.
An undisclosed amount does not mean an unusual one. At 245 MW across five plants, the Palencia portfolio sits close in size to Matrix Renewables' 239 MW, which was also five plants. That loan was almost exactly in the middle of Spain's 2024 solar lending on a per MW basis. Without a disclosed figure, though, any statement about where Cero's loan sits in the ranking would be a guess, and this ranking does not include it.
What does the ten-year contract do for the lenders?
It gives them a fixed buyer for the early years of the loan. A power purchase agreement, or PPA, is a long-term contract in which a buyer agrees to purchase a plant's output at agreed terms. Lenders size debt partly on how much revenue is contracted and for how long.
Ten years is a familiar tenor for Cero. Leap records its 70 MW Pontinia solar contract in Italy, signed with Heineken and Philips in 2022, as a ten-year PPA too. Its other contracts in Leap point the same way: a 100 MW virtual PPA with Axpo for the Delfini project in Greece and a 48 MW long-term PPA with Centrica Energy for a project in Italy, both in 2022. The pattern suggests a developer that prefers creditworthy offtakers on contracts long enough to support bank debt, while keeping the later years of a plant's life open.
The identity of the Palencia off-taker is not disclosed. Leap records only that it is a technology company. For the banks, the buyer's sector matters less than the length of the commitment.
Enerdatics records that all three of Cero's lenders were repeat names in Spanish solar debt in 2024. Banco Sabadell also lent to Matrix Renewables and BRUC. Rabobank also lent to Alantra and Solarig and to Encavis' refinancing of two operating parks. ING also lent to BRUC, and in October 2024 joined the bank group behind about $190 million for Lightsource bp's Guillena project.
What does the deal signal for Spanish solar finance?
It signals a lending market that was active and concentrated among a familiar group of banks. When the same lenders appear across many of a year's deals, terms tend to converge, which is consistent with the narrow range of debt per MW in the disclosed loans.
It also signals that contracted revenue sits at the centre of these financings. Cero's lenders had a ten-year corporate contract to lend against, and three banks were prepared to share the loan on that basis while the plants were still being built.
Finally, it is a reminder that transparency can be uneven even when it is high overall. With 12 of 14 Spanish solar loans priced in 2024, the deals that leave out the figure are the ones that cannot be benchmarked, and a 245 MW portfolio is large enough that its absence leaves a visible hole.
Frequently asked questions
Who lent to Cero Generation's Palencia solar portfolio? Banco Sabadell, Rabobank and ING lent to Cero Generation's 245 MW, five-plant Palencia solar portfolio in Spain, in a financing announced on 12 August 2024. The loan amount was not disclosed.
Which projects are in Cero Generation's Palencia portfolio? The portfolio comprises Palencia 1, Pisoraca 2, Pisoraca 3, Palencia 4 and Palencia 5, five utility-scale solar projects in the Palencia region with a combined capacity of 245 MW.
How does the Cero loan compare with other Spanish solar loans in 2024? It cannot be compared on size, because its amount is undisclosed. Spanish solar loans that disclose both amount and capacity ranged from about $0.72 million to about $0.90 million per MW in 2024.
Ready to get deal-ready answers in seconds? Try Enerdatics Leap AI and access verified intelligence across M&A, financings, PPAs, projects, and energy market developments through natural language.
.jpeg)
