Greece Names Guggenheim on $26 Billion Solar Project

(Corrects currency in the first paragraph.)

The Greek government appointed Guggenheim Partners LLC to act as financial adviser on the 20 billion euro ($26 billion) Helios solar project it’s considering to help boost income from renewable energy.

Guggenheim Partners will work alongside National Bank of Greece SA on the financing, structuring and staged deployment of the Helios solar project, the New York-based financial services company said today in a statement sent by e-mail.

Named after the ancient god of the sun, Helios is a 20 billion-euro project that aims to produce and export as much as 10 gigawatts of solar power by 2020. Greece aims to use the project’s revenues to reduce government debt by as much as 15 billion euros.

Helios will start with an initial target capacity of 2 gigawatts. As the grid develops, more partners will be brought in to develop the project, according to the statement.

“Helios is more than an innovative energy solution,” Todd Boehly, president of Guggenheim Partners, said in the statement. “It represents a significant step in Greece’s economic recovery that also helps accomplish many broader European goals.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Sally Bakewell in London at sbakewell1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net