Energy transition of the territories: De Gaulle Fleurance has advised a consortium in the setting up of a strategic partnership

CNR, Banque des Territoires and the regional banks of Crédit Agricole Centre-Est, Languedoc, Sud Rhône Alpes and Alpes Provence have announced the creation of Solarhona Invest, a new financing tool to accelerate the deployment of photovoltaic projects in the Rhône Valley.

Entirely dedicated to the energy transition of the territories, this investment company will invest in the photovoltaic projects developed by Solarhona, a subsidiary of CNR, by associating the actors of the territories in the capital of the projects on a long-term basis while creating the conditions for the cost, financing, and deployment of the said photovoltaic projects. Solarhona Invest plans to invest nearly one billion euros over the next 10 years to support the development of medium-sized photovoltaic projects (roofs of building, car park shading, small ground-mounted parks) and innovative projects (linear or floating power plants) led by local authorities, companies, and farmers.

Solarhona Invest’s capital is made up of 37.5% of the shares of CN’AIR, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CNR, 37.5% of the shares of Banque des Territoires and 25% of the shares of the regional banks of Crédit Agricole. The Auvergne Rhône Alpes and Sud Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur regions could also, in the near future, enter the capital of Solarhona Invest. By bringing together these committed players with longstanding roots in the Rhône Valley, Solarhona Invest is the bearer of an economic, ecological, and territorial project.

De Gaulle Fleurance advised the Banque des Territoires on the legal structuring of the project, public law and project contracts and then acted as joint counsel to the consortium in the context of the implementation of this strategic partnership (Agnès Macaire, partner, Lionel Attal, senior counsel, Thomas Vaseux, senior manager, Laura Ploy, senior counsel and Inès Madi, associate: on the public law, regulatory and project contracts aspects – Jonathan Souffir, partner : on the financing aspect and Julie Cornély, partner, Michelle Colas, senior counsel manager, Morgan Guyot, senior counsel manager and Manon Oravec, associate, on the transactional – M&A aspect).

“This consortium and this large-scale project are in line with the current general policy of developing energy transition solutions for the territories. This partnership is a new tool for aggregating and financing a large number of small and medium-sized photovoltaic projects. This is why we are particularly proud to have been able to participate in the birth of this partnership throughout its genesis and implementation”,

explain Agnès Macaire and Julie Cornély, partners at De Gaulle Fleurance.