A team of lawyers from Norton Rose Fulbright acted as local real estate counsel for Sol Systems, LLC in connection with the construction loan and tax equity financing of a 152 MW utility-scale solar facility in Saline County, Illinois.
This transaction represented the second phase of the Eldorado Solar Project, which is the first in the United States to use American-produced, advanced-technology tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) modules from Canadian Solar USA Manufacturing. It also incorporates Kernza® grain cultivation and pollinator-friendly vegetation.
The first phase of the project, on which Norton Rose Fulbright also advised, closed in January 2024. Eldorado Solar Project II shares a substation and switchyard with phase one, which required a complex shared facilities agreement and unique real estate solutions to ensure both phases had sufficient rights to land being used for each project.
Upon completion, Eldorado Phase II will increase the overall project’s capacity to over 300 MW, making it one of the largest solar projects in the region and one of the largest combined solar and crop cultivation projects in the country.
Norton Rose Fulbright’s deal team was led by John F. Young, Theresa Carroll (Chicago) and Lauren Shapiro Newberry (Austin) and also included Emily Beckman, Ali Berry (Chicago) and Kathy Wenger (Minneapolis).
