• European renewables on the infra fund radar

    Early January this year saw the European Parliament approve a new renewable energy target of 35% by 2030, topping the existing agreement between member states on a 27% target by the same year.

  • Oil majors – shuffling along the Road to Damascus

    In a volte-face that’s enough to make a North Korean dictator blush, the oil majors are continuing to trip over their feet in a bid to reinvent themselves as good guys, having spent the last century-plus playing the black-hat cowboy

  • EXCLUSIVE Arroyo Seco and Timbúes CHPs, Argentina

    Project finance is finally taking off in Argentina’s energy sector after a years-long dry spell, with only a precious few projects making it to financial close in 2017. Now Argentina’s second-largest energy producer Albanesi Energia has closed the financing for two cogeneration heat and power plant projects in Santa Fe

  • More to Colombia than just 4G

    Colombian cities are following the lead of the capital Bogota and are trying to launch a pipeline of infra PPPs

  • Infra funds – it’s hammer time

    Infrastructure’s full of surprises. Hardly a week goes by that the eyebrows don’t shoot up to the hairline (still got one) over some development or another. And this last week has seen more than its fair share of surprises

  • Infra fund activity – lot more than you'd think

    As a young journo working the local press world in 1990s north east Scotland, an old editor – a grizzled hack bearing the scars of hard-living hackery – once said: “Angus, the difference between doctors and journalists is that doctors get to bury their mistakes, ours are out there for everyone to see”

  • Rantau Dedap geothermal, Indonesia

    It took four years for the sponsors of the Rantau Dedap geothermal power plant to reach financial close on the $700 million project in South Sumatra, Indonesia

  • DEWA CSP

    Acwa Power and Shanghai Electric’s 700MW CSP project in Dubai represents the world’s largest thermal solar development. The sponsors are looking to finance the $3.9 billion development with a raft of European, Chinese and regional lenders under a soft mini-perm structure

  • Friday the 13th – Nightmare on London Streets

    Like all best horror stories, this one is set in the near future – in this case a mere six months hence – a half-year since the C Virus ravaged the market, slashing value from listed infra funds and reducing managers to husks of their former selves

  • Don Rodrigo solar, Spain

    This week German developer BayWa r.e. signed a 15-year PPA with Norwegian utility Statkraft for the 170MWp no-subsidy solar PV project in Spain, extending the tenors for PPAs in the market. Spanish and German banks are preparing to back PPAs with long-term senior debt as soon as this year

  • US upstream intention

    Rebounding oil prices saw a surge in upstream oil & gas investments in the US last year, but that enthusiasm may be more muted in 2018

  • Turkey – sun, wind and political risk

    It’s tiresome as hell, repetitive to a fault and dull as ditch water. Aren’t you just sick of the daily force-feed news that X offshore wind farm is the biggest ever, zero bids will soon have developers paying for the privilege, Y solar park achieved the lowest rate, and panels are so cheap they will be handing them out for free with tubes of sun lotion?

  • Lebanon’s designs on PPP

    Lebanon has unveiled plans for a $22 billion Infrastructure Investment Programme (IIP) to be implemented over the coming 12 years, with $6 billion of that designated as PPPs. The programme opens up opportunities for private investors to tap a market desperately in need of key infrastructure – but which has had little PPP success in the past

  • Power push in Bangladesh

    Bangladesh has the potential for significant economic growth but still suffers from huge unmet power demand. The country is trying to address this power deficit by investing in renewables and conventional power sources

  • Australia: Sydney congestion

    Infrastructure Australia's priority list for 2018 is focusing on resolving congestion in Sydney, the country’s largest city

  • Çanakkale Bridge, Turkey

    Turkey’s north western regions have seen a flurry of transport projects of late, with bridges – specifically the third Bosporus bridge, which opened to traffic on 26 August 2016, and the recently financed Çanakkale Bridge – the crowning glory of the programme

  • Samurai loans – new master for Ronin lenders

    A wind of change is sweeping the Australian financing market with MUFG closing syndication on its second refi of a major piece of availability-based infrastructure today, leveraging the fearsome might of Samurai lenders

  • Sparks of life in Brazilian transmission

    The Brazilian government sees investment in transmission assets as a key tool in boosting the country’s economy. After a number of years of limited interest in development auctions, improved returns for investors in 2016 revealed an increased appetite for transmission projects

  • Boston automated fare P3, US

    A new automated fare collection system for Boston, but Charlie is still stuck on the subway