Leeward Renewable Energy, LLC has closed construction financing and secured tax equity commitments for its Panorama Wind Farm located in Weld County, Colorado. MUFG Bank, Ltd. served as coordinating lead arranger, bookrunner and administrative agent for the approximately $190 million financing. The financing is comprised of a construction loan, tax equity bridge loan and back leverage term loan commitment. National Australia Bank, Silicon Valley Bank and Helaba Group served as part of the lending group and Goldman Sachs provided a $135 million tax equity commitment.
The greenfield Panorama project is the third wind farm Leeward has developed in Weld County, in addition to its Cedar Creek and Mountain Breeze projects. Vestas-American Wind Technology supplied the 66 wind turbine generators that will have the capacity to generate 145 megawatts (MW) of clean energy. Under a previously announced power purchase arrangement with Guzman Energy, the project will generate affordable electricity for approximately 53,000 homes in Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming.
“We are pleased to have closed financing for the Panorama project with a number of new financial relationships led by MUFG Bank,”
commented Chris Loehr, Leeward Chief Financial Officer. “With their support, we are well-positioned to complete the construction of Panorama with the latest and most efficient technologies, bringing our total generation capacity in Weld County to 617 MW and helping Colorado meet its goal of 100 percent green energy generation by 2040.”
Beth Waters, Managing Director of Project Finance at MUFG, commented: “Toward our commitment to renewable energy financing, we welcome the opportunity to support Leeward’s efforts and advance the transition to sustainable energy sources.”
Vivek Kagzi, from the Sustainable Investing Group of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, commented: “Investments from Goldman such as these enable our sponsor clients like Leeward to maximize all the incentive benefits that are available to them to finance wind projects.
Goldman looks forward to continuing to support sponsors like Leeward as they build out renewable energy solutions to combat the ongoing effects of climate change.”
Construction of the Panorama Wind Farm has commenced and is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2022.
