Scout Clean Energy finalizes Heart of Texas wind farm

Scout Clean Energy has completed construction and closed tax equity funding for the 180 MW Heart of Texas wind farm (HTX) located in McCulloch County, Texas.

Scout started construction on Heart of Texas in September of last year.

“Heart of Texas was completed on time and under budget which is quite an achievement given the wide-spread disruption that COVID-19 has caused across the entire US economy. It is a real credit to Scout’s construction management team, our suppliers, contractors and financiers who have worked tirelessly to get to the finish line. Reaching commercial operations at Heart of Texas brings Scout’s operational portfolio of wind energy generation to 698 MW with a further 146 MW under construction and more than 4,000 MW in our active development pipeline.”

Michael Rucker, CEO and founder of Scout Clean Energy.

The completion of construction follows the commissioning of Scout’s 300MW Ranchero wind farm in Crockett County, Texas late last year. HTX will utilize sixty-four (64) of the latest generation GE 2MW platform wind turbines. The utility-scale project will utilize three models of 2MW platform turbines to optimize site production.

HTX has secured an offtake contract with Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty’s Alternative Risk Transfer unit, in partnership with Nephila Climate. REsurety provided the risk analytics supporting the long-term offtake transaction.

Construction financing of $255 million was provided by KeyBank as Administrative Agent, Rabobank and CoBank, ACB. GE Energy Financial Services and BHE Renewables invested tax equity financing.

Scout entered into a fixed-price balance-of-plant construction agreement with RES Americas Construction who completed construction work. The asset management and post-construction operations will be undertaken by Scout.

The project has tax incentive agreements in place with McCulloch County, McCulloch County Hospital District, and Lohn Independent School District. It is estimated that the county will receive approximately $36 million in tax revenue over the life of the project.