By Mainstream Renewable Power has reached financial close for the second phase of its fully-owned and fully-contracted 1.3 gigawatt Andes Renovables wind and solar power generation platform in Chile.
The Company has successfully raised $620 million in debt to fund construction of phase two of what is one of Latin American’s biggest wind and solar generation platforms. This brings to $1.25 billion raised to date by the Andes Renovables platform.
The Senior Financing was provided by a consortium of five banks: IDB Invest, KfW IPEX-Bank, DNB, CaixaBank and MUFG, and is one of the world’s largest debt financing deals for renewable energy undertaken this year. A VAT facility was provided by a sixth bank, Santander.
Andes Renovables’ second phase of 630 MW – named Huemul – consists of three onshore wind and two assets generated by solar PV. All five assets are under pre-construction, and between 2021 and 2022 will reach commercial operation. They will produce ample renewable electricity to power 781,000 Chilean homes and will annually displace 744,200 metric tons of CO2.
Andes Renovables is a c. $1.8 billion, three phase wind and solar generation, consisting of seven onshore wind and three assets generated by solar PV. In November 2019, Cóndor reached financial close in the first process, and is already over 30% complete.
The build-out created nearly 1,200 jobs throughout the country’s three regions and proceeded safely during the COVID-19 pandemic under strict guidelines for sanitary and social distancing. The next and final step, Copihue, consists of an additional wind asset with a capacity of 100 MW, and is on track to achieve financial close in H1 2021.
Vestas, the Nordex Group and Siemens Gamesa supply the wind turbines, and Sacyr Industrial, SEMI and Elecnor will develop the wind farm assets. Sterling & Wilson, and Metka-Egn will develop the solar PV assets. Hitachi ABB Power Grids will supply the five major power transformers for the projects. Transelec, Inprolec and the consortium Isotron-Siemens will conduct grid connection works.
“Reaching financial close on the second phase of our Andes Renovables platform is a further positive step on Mainstream’s journey to delivering Latin America’s number one wind and solar PV power generation platform. Despite the uncertain economic environment caused by COVID-19, today’s announcement is testament to the support of the banking consortium of Mainstream as the world’s leading independent developer of renewable energy.
“Mainstream is building something much bigger than the sum of its many parts – the Andes Renovables platform is evidence of renewable energy infrastructure on a massive scale and comes at a vital time for Chile as the country looks to invest in a green and sustainable recovery from COVID-19 by decarbonising its electricity system, as well as lowering the price of power generation nationwide.”
Mary Quaney, Mainstream’s Group chief executive.
“This latest milestone comes as we are making excellent progress on the construction of the first phase of the platform and I have been delighted by the response of our teams on the ground to the challenging conditions that the pandemic has created. The economic and environmental impact of the platform is very significant and with a development pipeline of 2.7 gigawatts of wind and solar assets in addition to the Andes Renovables platform, Mainstream remains committed to making an even greater contribution to Chile for the foreseeable future.”
Manuel Tagle, Mainstream’s general manager for Latin America.
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