CPV Renewable Energy Company has scored a $65 million equity investment from GE Energy Financial Services to support the construction of the $319 million, 152 megawatts Keenan II wind farm in Oklahoma. The project is scheduled for completion by year’s end and GE’s energy financing unit could invest an additional $100 million in the project once it goes live.
In exchange for the financing GE Energy Financial Services is getting the wind farm’s production tax credits, the company said in a release issued today.
CPV is funding the rest of the project with equity and a $212 million project finance loan arranged by The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and Union Bank, formerly known as the Union Bank of California. Also funding the project are Key Bank, Helaba, LBBW, Natixis and Rabo Bank.
Keenan II is backed by a 20-year power purchase agreement with Oklahoma Gas & Electric Company.
Wind comprises nearly 80 percent of GE Energy Financial Services’ renewable energy portfolio. The portfolio includes equity investments in 47 wind farms with a total capacity to produce 6 gigawatts of electricity, as well as loans to 36 wind farms totaling 1.3 gigawatts.
Last year GE Energy Financial Services, said it was on track to meet its goal of having $6 billion invested in renewable energy by the end of 2010. Last December it invested $228 million in a string of wind-generated power plants owned and operated by Horizon Wind Energy, the North American unit of Portugal’s EPD Renewables.