Pathfinder Clean Energy (PACE), the UK-headquartered international developer of utility scale solar and battery storage projects, has secured funding from Hitachi Capital Business Finance to support the growth of its project development pipeline in the UK.
The financing arrangement will enable PACE to continue its development pipeline of solar plus storage sites, with plans to submit an additional 130MWp of projects into planning in Q1 2022. This would bring PACE’s portfolio of permitted or planning submitted projects to over 200MWp. The portfolio would require over £100m of construction funding through 2022/23.
Rob Rabinowitz, Commercial Director at PACE said: “Hitachi Capital’s credit facility is designed to support PACE’s strategy of building a strong renewable energy platform that integrates project development, financing and operations.”
Rob Denman, Managing Director of PACE said: “PACE is delighted to be working with Hitachi Capital; they are one of the leaders in the sustainability financing sector. The agreement with Hitachi Capital enables us to continue our growth in the UK and accelerate our projects through the development process.”
“As the market continues to innovate – in the UK and the other markets in which PACE is doing business – we are constantly evaluating how we can maximise the benefit our projects can bring, through combining utility scale solar with energy storage or considering how we can integrate other advances such as green hydrogen.”
“We consider this to be the start of a long business relationship with Hitachi Capital in the UK and the other international markets in which we operate.”
PACE is presently developing renewable energy projects in the UK, Spain, Poland and Canada. Last month, PACE secured approval for two solar projects in the Canadian province of Alberta; construction of these are expected to start in 2022.
Phillippe Bazin, Head of Sustainability, Hitachi Capital Business Finance said. “Hitachi Capital has a long-term commitment to funding innovation and deployment in the UK’s renewable energy markets and in helping businesses with strong sustainability ambitions and growth prospects to get to scale. We have been impressed with the quality and depth of PACE’s offer and have designed a tailored funding package that supports their growth while they increase the maturity and value of their project portfolio.”
For further information:
Pathfinder Clean Energy
Paul Taylor, Taylor Keogh Communications: +44 (0)7966 782611 / paul@taylorkeogh.com
Ben Chippendale, PACE: +44 (0)20 7127 4542 / press@pathinderce.com
Hitachi Capital Business Finance
Jim Follett, elephant communications: 07908 551571 – 07908 551572 / jim@elephantcommunications.co.uk
Notes to Editors
About Pathfinder Clean Energy (PACE) – wordpress-36197-2975843.cloudwaysapps.com
Pathfinder Clean Energy (PACE) is an international clean energy developer and investor. The company was co-founded by Rob Denman and Alex Ross in 2017. The company has since grown to a team of 16 people across UK, continental Europe and Canada – all with extensive experience in the clean energy sector.
PACE’s team brings over 40 years and 1GW of experience from across the asset cycle – from development to financing, construction and operation.
PACE uses the latest cloud-based proprietary technology to collaborate across global markets and projects to enable its projects to deliver competitive power prices under merchant power models, PPAs or bids into government auctions.
PACE’s understanding and management of the complete life cycle of a project provides a route to deploying capital at scale and across multiple international clean energy markets.
About Hitachi Capital Business Finance
Hitachi Capital Business Finance, a division of Hitachi Capital (UK) PLC, provides business asset finance to SMEs and bigger corporations across the UK to help them meet their goals and grow.
With an asset portfolio of more than £1.3bn, the business is active across multiple sectors such as transport, agriculture, construction, manufacturing, materials handling and financial services providers.
Business finance products including hire purchase, finance lease solutions, stocking and block discounting are provided through brokers, vendor organisations, manufacturers and direct to the business community.
About Hitachi Capital (UK) PLC
Hitachi Capital (UK) Plc is a leading financial services company, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). We have over 1,500 employees, £5.9bn of net earning assets and over 1.4 million customers across five business divisions; Consumer Finance, Vehicle Solutions, Business Finance, Invoice Finance and European Vendor Solutions. For nearly 40 years, Hitachi Capital (UK) PLC has worked with consumers and small to medium enterprises (SMEs) as well as corporate multinationals in the UK and mainland Europe, enabling millions of consumers and businesses to achieve their ambitions.
Whether it’s powering retail with market-leading point of sale finance, helping people realise their ambitions with personal loans, supporting the growth of SMEs or keeping businesses on the road, Hitachi Capital (UK) PLC has firmly established itself as one of the UK’s leading consumer lending, asset finance and vehicle leasing providers.
From 1 April 2021 we became a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi HC Capital Inc. strengthening our relationship with one of the world’s largest and most diversified financial groups.