DESRI brings live 198 MW of solar parks in Illinois, locks funding

DE Shaw Renewable Investments LLC (DESRI) has achieved commercial operations and closed debt and tax equity financing for two solar parks in Illinois totalling 198 MW.

Each of the two plants, namely Prairie State Solar and Dressor Plains Solar, will be operated under long-term power purchase agreements with electric cooperative Wabash Valley Power Alliance (WVPA). They also have contracts in place for the purchase of renewable energy certificates (RECs) with the Illinois Power Agency (IPA), DESRI said on Wednesday.

Located in Perry County and Fayette County, the Prairie and Dressor parks are expected to have a combined output equal to the power consumption of around 21,000 homes annually. Each of them has an individual capacity of 99 MW.

Both projects were co-developed by Chicago-based Ranger Power and are backed by term debt from the US Department of Agriculture's Rural Utility Service. Additionally, DESRI utilised debt financing to acquire and build the two projects. The debt was extended by a tie-up of lenders including Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, CoBank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, PNC Capital Markets LLC, PNC Bank, National Association and National Cooperative Services Corporation.

Tax equity component was provided by Bank of America.

SOLV Energy was the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) for both projects. The company will also take care of the plants’ operations and maintenance.

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