Innergex Renewable Energy acquired a sizable 250MWAC/315 MWDC photovoltaic solar project located in Winkler County, TX from Longroad Energy Partners.
The company also closed on the project’s non-recourse construction, term debt and tax equity financing. Commercial operation on the project should be reached in the third quarter of 2019.
CIT Group’s Energy Finance unit will provide $292 million in construction and long-term project financing to partially fund the estimated $397 million in project construction costs. Innergex will fund its $105 million equity commitment after the debt is fully drawn. This obligation will be supported by the issuance of a letter of credit.
“We are very much looking forward to breaking ground on our largest solar project to date. I am confident that our experience and expertise in developing and managing renewable energy projects will ensure the successful completion of the Phoebe project and demonstrate our commitment to growing our diversified portfolio of assets,” said Michel Letellier, president and CEO of Innergex.
The installed capacity will be 250 MWAC/315 MWDC and the average annual power generation is expected to reach 738,000 MWh (33.7% AC net capacity factor), enough to power about 53,000 Texas households. Innergex expects the facility to be in operations for 35 years, and all land rights were negotiated accordingly.
The project is expecting a projected adjusted EBITDA of approximately $20.2 million for 12 months of operations. Following cash distributions to the tax equity partner, the distributions receivable by Innergex prior to debt service would be approximately $13.8 million.
At commercial operation, a subsidiary of Wells Fargo is expected to fund the tax equity investment. This investment will be used to repay the tax equity bridge loan, with the balance being distributed to Innergex.
Innergex Renewable Energy develops, acquires, owns and operates run-of-river hydroelectric facilities, wind farms, solar photovoltaic farms and geothermal power generation plants. It has operations in Canada, the U.S., France and Iceland.
