Solar developer SunEdison, a divison of US firm MEMC Electronic Materials, believes the venture will be one of the biggest of its kind in the world.

SunEdison president Carlos Domenech says: "We expect the joint venture to help facilitate the development of our existing backlog of project opportunities and prospective projects that meet our development criteria.”

An initial equity commitment of $167m will be contributed by First Reserve and SunEdison over time.

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