Alterra Power has completed a $529m of financing and partnership for the 200MW Flat Top wind farm to be located in central Texas, US.

Closing of finance can help the project in achieving the final phase of construction. The important aspects of the financing include a stake acquisition of 49% in the wind farm by BlackRock Real Assets. The remaining 51% will be held by Alterra.

Citibank’s affiliates, Santander and the Royal Bank of Canada have agreed to provide a loan of $217m along with letters of credit totalling $71m. This amount, totalling $287m will be used for the construction of the wind farm.

Berkshire Hathaway Energy and Citi’s subsidiaries have also committed to provide a $221m of tax equity investment, which will be realised when the wind farm starts commercial operations. Alterra plans to use the tax equity in repaying the loan taken for the wind farm’s construction.

Apart from these financial commitments, Alterra has also secured an additional $21m of loan precedent to funding its expanded loan facility with affiliates of AMP Capital Investors. The amount will fund a portion of Alterra’s equity contribution for the project.

Alterra CEO John Carson said: "We're extremely pleased to have our Shannon financing partners join us again at Flat Top, and to welcome a strong, new partner in BlackRock.

"We anticipate that the Flat Top project will serve our stakeholders and the State of Texas well, delivering a large amount of clean power into a lesser served portion of the state for years to come."

Power produced from the wind farm will be sold under a 13 year power hedge to one of Citi’s affiliates. Blattner Energy has been appointed to provide primary construction phase services. Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas’ American subsidiary will supply the turbines for the project.

Commissioning and start of commercial operations is expected to start in the first half of 2018.  


Image: Alterra Energy closes financing for Flat Top wind farm in the US. Photo: Courtesy of Jim Frech/FreeImages.com.