Pacifico Energy Partners and Eiffel Investment Group join forces to develop photovoltaic plants and battery energy storage systems in Europe

Pacifico Energy Partners and Eiffel Investment Group pool their resources in a dedicated joint venture to accelerate the development of renewable energy projects. Pacifico will contribute projects at mid-stage development and Eiffel will finance this critical phase to obtain the necessary permits & authorizations through bridge equity financing. Pacifico will then drive the development process until the projects are ready-to-build, at which point the joint-venture may sell the assets.

The joint venture is focused on the development of a portfolio of agrivoltaic projects in Italy, primarily in the Lazio region and totaling c. 300MW. Once operational, these projects are expected to provide over 200,000 Italian homes with renewable electricity, thereby contributing to avoiding the emission of the equivalent of up to 200,000 tons of CO2 per year. On all projects, agrivoltaic concepts (simultaneous use for both solar photovoltaic power generation and agriculture) will ensure the continuity of value-creating usage of the land for food production and farming, for instance by planting c.160,000 olive trees between PV module rows on one project site. Selective additions of battery storage to the plants will additionally contribute to stabilizing the grid.

Eiffel will invest up to 20M€ in the portfolio via Eiffel Transition Infrastructure, its new bridge equity fund launched earlier in November 2022 and dedicated to the financing of the development of renewable energy projects.

Jannik Hoffmann, Chief Financial Officer at Pacifico, says, “The partnership with Eiffel allows Pacifico Energy Partners to focus on what we are best at – identifying the best projects and delivering them. We are committed to making a sizable impact towards a clean energy future and are particularly delighted to broaden our cooperation with Eiffel, a financing party which we have already successfully worked with in past transactions.”

Pierre-Antoine Machelon, Managing Director at Eiffel Investment Group, says, “We are very excited about this partnership with Pacifico Energy Partners. This inaugural transaction for Eiffel Transition infrastructure will accelerate the deployment of additional renewable energy capacity by bringing much-needed equity in the early phase of the projects and leveraging Pacifico’s strong experience of PV development.”

Herbert Smith Freehills Frankfurt has been acting as legal advisor to Pacifico.