Canadian renewable energy company Innergex Renewable Energy has achieved closing of construction financing and tax equity commitment for the 225MW Griffin Trail wind project located in Knox and Baylor Counties of Texas, the US.
The financing of $276.2m (C$354.5m) was arranged with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, which acted as coordinating lead arranger, while CIBC served as the joint lead arranger.
Wells Fargo gave a $171.4m (C$220m) tax equity commitment, which will be provided upon the commercial operation date.
Innergex president and chief executive officer Michel Letellier said: “It was only a few months ago, when the U.S. Production Tax Credits deadlines were extended, that we knew we were in a strong position to bring Griffin Trail forward, and we have since made rapid progress on development and construction.
“Securing construction financing and tax equity commitment for this project is another milestone, and I want to congratulate all Innergex employees who contributed to this significant team effort.”
Work on the project started in September this year, with operations and maintenance building and road construction works underway, and almost 50% of the foundations have been completed.
The agreement for the construction of the project has been executed with Blattner Energy.
A supply agreement has been executed with GE, which will deliver the wind turbines from January next year.
A local transmission provider is working on construction of the interconnection point, while deliveries of long-lead items have already started.
Griffin Trail project is expected to be commissioned in Q3 2021.
The total construction cost is estimated to be about $284.7m (C$365.4m).
The power produced by the wind farm will be fed into the ERCOT transmission grid, and sold on the spot market.
This project is expected to generate an average of 819.0GWh of clean energy every year, which will be enough to power approximately 57,000 Texan households.
In November, Innergex and Pituvik Landholding Corporation reached financial close for the Innavik hydro project in Canada.
