Mainstream's 1.35-GW wind, solar platform in Chile now fully funded

Mainstream Renewable Power has closed the financing for the third and final phase of its 1.35-GW Andes Renovables wind and solar platform in Chile, the Ireland-based developer announced on Thursday.

The third phase, named Copihue, consists of one wind farm project -- the 148.5-MW Caman. Caman was originally designed for 100 MW of capacity but boosted with additional 48.5 MW thanks to a long-term bilateral power purchase agreement (PPA) with an unnamed party, the company said.

A regulated PPA awarded to Mainstream in Chile’s renewable energy auction will cover for the first 100 MW.

Mainstream said it raised around USD 182 million (EUR 153.8m) in debt to fund the Caman project. Germany’s KfW IPEX-Bank, Oslo-based lender DNB and Spain’s CaixaBank SA (BME:CABK) extended the senior debt financing, while the VAT financing was provided by Scotiabank Chile.

The Caman wind farm will be located in the Los Rios region, central Chile. The balance of plant was entrusted to Spanish construction engineering company Sacyr Industrial SL, of Sacyr SA (BME:SCYR), which was also hired to build wind farms for the Condor and Huemul phases of the Andes Renovables platform.

Swiss group ABB Ltd (SWX:ABBN) was again invited to supply the main transformer.

With the Copihue agreement, Mainstream has finalised its investment of more than USD 1.8 billion to fund the entire effort to build Andes Renovables. The platform will build a total of ten projects -- 999.5 MW across seven onshore wind farms and three solar parks totalling 350 MW.

Andes Renovables is expected to be in full operation by 2022, Mainstream said.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.85)

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