The U.S. Department of Energy on Friday announced a conditional commitment to provide a partial guarantee for a $1.3 billion loan in support of an 845 megawatts (MW) wind farm in easter Oregon.
Upon completion, the Caithness Shepherds Flat wind project will be one of the largest, if not the largest wind farm, in the world.
The project is the largest to date to
receive an offer for a loan guarantee under
the Financial Institution Partnership Program (FIPP), a Department of
Energy program supported by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
In a FIPP financing, the Department of Energy guarantees up to 80% of a loan provided to a renewable energy project by qualified
financial institutions. The $1.3 billion loan is expected to be funded
by a group of institutional investors and commercial banks led by Citi (NYSE: C),
as lender-applicant and joint lead arranger, and three other joint lead
arrangers, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd., RBS Securities and
WestLB Securities Inc.
The Caithness Shepherds Flat wind project consists of 338 wind turbines
supplied by GE (NYSE: GE). Once completed, the project will sell 100% of the
power generated to Southern California Edison (NYSE: EIX) through 20-year fixed
price power purchase agreements. According to Caithness,
the project will directly create 400 construction jobs, followed by 35
permanent wind jobs on site.
The Department of Energy, through the Loan Programs Office, now has issued loan guarantees or offered conditional commitments for loan guarantees to support 15 clean energy projects, resulting in $15.9 billion in total loan guarantees. F
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