Russia’s Hevel Solar has partnered up with Switzerland’s Avelar Energy Group in an effort to build a network of five solar power stations in the Rostov region, in Russia’s South, Russian business daily RBC from Rostov-on-Don.

The inaugural stage of the project, first announced as far back as last fall, is expected to include a network with a capacity of 53MW. This represents a slight change in planning as six months ago Hevel talked about 80MW and as much as $230m in investment. Now the partners are reportedly allocating just over $140m for the endeavor.

Hevel and Avelar are hoping to launch the network of solar stations by 2018.

According to a spokesman in the Russian company, it is a high level of insolation (exposure to solar radiation) in this particular area that prompted the partners to decide to build there.

Hevel Solar was set up in 2009 by Rusnano, Russia’s nanotech giant, and Renova, a multi-sector group of Russian industrial companies owned by Viktor Vekselberg, the president of Russia’s Skolkovo Foundation. Hevel runs its own solar module manufacturing site, Russia’s largest as of today, in Novocheboksarsk, in the mid-Volga area.