CIT Group Inc. announced its Power and Energy business served as coordinating lead arranger for $204.5 million in debt financing to support construction of Holstein Solar, a 200-megawatt solar farm to be built in Nolan County, Texas. Concurrent with financial close, the project was sold by 8minute Solar Energy to Duke Energy Renewables.

8minute Solar Energy is based in Los Angeles and is the largest private solar and storage developer in the United States. 8minute has over 14 gigawatts of solar and storage under development in California, the Southwest, Texas, and the Southeast while also having brought more than 2 gigawatts of solar power plants into operation.

Duke Energy Renewables, a nonregulated unit of Duke Energy, operates wind and solar generation facilities across the U.S., with a total capacity of 3,000 megawatts. Duke Energy is one of the nation's top renewable energy providers – on track to own or purchase 8,000 megawatts of wind, solar and biomass energy by 2020.

CIT led a group of four other banks in arranging the Holstein Solar financing. In addition to leveraging its financing and structuring expertise, CIT is also providing a comprehensive package of capital markets services and treasury management solutions.

Holstein is the third major solar project that CIT has financed in Texas in a little over a year. Market research firm Inframation, an Acuris company, has identified CIT as one of the top lenders for renewable energy projects nationwide. 

"We were pleased to work with both 8minute and Duke Energy Renewables to advance the Holstein project as we continue to grow our portfolio of clean energy financings across the U.S.," said Mike Lorusso, managing director and group head for CIT's Power and Energy business.

"We're convinced that large-scale solar power plants like Holstein Solar will become the dominant form of power generation in the future," said Tom Buttgenbach, President and CEO of 8minute. "We greatly appreciated the expertise of CIT's Power and Energy team in arranging the financing for this exciting new project."

Power and Energy, part of CIT's Commercial Finance division, leverages its deep industry knowledge and expertise to offer comprehensive financing solutions for renewable and conventional power generation. The unit manages a large, diverse portfolio that includes investments in all asset classes across the energy sector.