Clearway Energy Group (“Clearway”) announced today that it closed financing and began repowering construction of its Cedro Hill wind farm in Webb County, Texas. The repower will increase Cedro Hill’s capacity to 160 MW from 150 MW today. Once complete, the repowered project will generate enough electricity to power nearly 40,000 homes during peak hours.
“Our Cedro Hill repowering is our most recent example of how Clearway is upgrading its sizeable existing fleet to deploy resilient, state-of-the-art technology on sites that have proven, high-quality wind resources,” said Chris Fox, Senior Vice President of Construction at Clearway Energy Group. “As a long-term owner and operator, we are pleased that repowerings like Cedro Hill deliver decades of more value for our local landowners and communities.”
This project will mark Clearway’s fifth wind farm repower in Texas and sixth across its portfolio, amounting to over 700 MW of upgrades to deploy resilient, state-of-the-art technology on sites with strong wind resources.
The Cedro Hill repower represents a $269 million investment in South Texas. Upon completion, the repower will add another fifteen years to the project’s operating life and extend property taxes and landowner payments to Webb County by $27 million.
The repower will replace the blades and nacelle with General Electric (GE) equipment across the site’s 100 turbines, and responsibly manage all replaced equipment. In collaboration with Wanzek Construction, Inc., a MasTec Renewables company, Clearway is undertaking efforts to ensure that existing materials, including fiberglass, are recycled or diverted from landfills. Over 200 skilled laborers will support construction.?
Cedro Hill was originally built and commissioned in 2010, with its generated power sold under a long-term power purchase agreement with CPS Energy, the largest municipal electric and gas utility in the nation, serving the city of San Antonio, Texas, and one of the nation’s largest municipal buyers of wind energy. As part of the repowering, CPS Energy extended its existing agreement to support its commitment to growing its renewable energy portfolio. CPS Energy continues to benefit from 100% of the power generated by the Cedro Hill wind farm.
To finance the repowering, Clearway raised $261 million in construction, term loan, and letter of credit facilities from a bank consortium including DNB Markets, Inc. (“DNB”), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, New York Branch (“CIBC”), National Australia Bank Limited (“NAB”) and Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank, New York branch (“DZ”).
“MasTec Renewables is looking forward to another successful project with Clearway Energy Group,” said Brendon Lamppa, Director of Construction, MasTec Renewable. “This will be the third overall, but the first repower project that the teams will have worked together on. This is a unique opportunity given the fact that MasTec Renewables’ legacy personnel performed the original build in 2010. The repower aspect also brings a recycling component into the equation. All 100 existing hubs and 300 existing blades will be removed, cut on-site, and shipped to a recycling facility to be processed for beneficial reuse.”
