Dentons advised Enlight Renewable Energy on the contract negotiations for the construction of three solar power plants in Hungary, with an aggregate capacity of appx. 57 MW. The firm also assisted Enlight in obtaining HUF 15 billion (around €45 million) in financing for the project.

The financing documentation was subject to laws in five jurisdictions: Hungary, Great Britain, the USA, Israel and Germany. Agnieszka Lipska, counsel in Dentons’ Banking and Finance practice, negotiated the facility agreements and all other financing documentation, in addition to coordinating the efforts of the legal teams in all five jurisdictions. Partner Mateusz Toczyski, Head of the Banking and Finance practice in Europe and Poland, provided oversight on the financial aspects of the deal with assistance from associate Łukasz Błaszczak.

Agnieszka Kulińska, counsel in the Energy and Natural Resources practice, drafted the contracts for the construction, maintenance and management of the solar power plants, delivery and servicing of the solar panels, and provision of ancillary services, and represented the client in negotiations with vendors.

Arkadiusz Krasnodębski, Poland Managing Partner and Europe Head of the Energy practice at Dentons, supervised the energy-related aspects of the project. Lawyers with Dentons Poland also coordinated the efforts of legal advisors in Hungary.

“International financing transactions, especially those in regulated sectors, are extremely challenging. In particular, this deal required combined knowledge of energy regulation and finance law across five different jurisdictions. We are proud to have contributed so much to the first stage of the project,” said Agnieszka Lipska.

“We are pleased that Enlight has once again shown its trust in us by retaining our law firm to provide comprehensive assistance with their Hungarian projects. Earlier we advised them in connection with wind farm projects in Croatia and Serbia,” added Mateusz Toczyski.

”In the coming years we will witness accelerated growth in solar energy projects. The European solar power sector is forecast to grow by 40 GW to almost 160 GW by 2022. One factor contributing to this growth will be imports of solar panels from China, the world’s largest producer of these devices – now that the EU restrictions on imports of these panels, introduced in 2013, were lifted early in September,” said Arkadiusz Krasnodębski.

“We are also seeing a shift in the attitude to solar energy in various countries. Several weeks ago, Spain’s government did away with the sun tax (impuesto al sol) restricting the use of solar power for one’s own use. This tax was introduced three years ago and has since drawn universal criticism.”

Enlight Renewable Energy, is a public company traded on TASE and the Israeli leader in initiating, developing, funding, building and operating clean power ventures from renewable energy sources. With current operations in Israel and Europe, Enlight has built and/or invested in more than 130 projects, generating total power of over 500 MW and additional 650 MW are in advanced stages of development. Long term agreements for selling electricity from its existing plants provide the company with a steady revenues stream concurrently with ongoing development of significant portfolio of future projects.

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