The wind farm will have a total capacity of 223MW and will consist of 95 of Wobben E-92 wind turbines. Expected to start commercial operations in next November, the wind farm will be located in the Northeastern state of Bahia.
The construction phase could create around 1400 jobs in the region along with indirect jobs in the supply chain and operation phases.
The financing will also support the construction of road access, substation, transmission line and could help in offering infrastructure debentures.
In addition to the 223 MW Serra da Babilônia, Rio Energy also operates two wind complexes, Eólicas Caetité (54 MW) in Bahia and Eólicas Itarema (207 MW) in Ceará, with a 2 GW portfolio of projects in the pipeline.
Rio Energy CEO and co-founder Marcos Meireles said: "We are very pleased to be working together with BNDES on this important infrastructure project. The Serra da Babilônia complex will bring Rio Energy close to 500MW in operation, a result that strengthens Brazilian wind power generation and creates social and economic development opportunities for the region.”
Denham Capital partner and co-president Scott Mackin said: “Rio Energy is a testament to our strategy of backing the best teams that can deliver low cost power generation in high growth economies.
“We are further delighted to have shared this co-investment opportunity with our existing limited partners, bringing total co-investment commitments to more than $170m.”
Rio Energy is being supported by Denham Capital, a private equity firm which has about $8.5bn of investments in power, oil and gas and mining industries in several countries including Italy, Brazil, Uruguay, Australia, Philippines and in Africa.
Image: Rio Energy secures financing for the construction of 223MW wind farm in Brazil. Photo: Courtesy of prozac1/FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
