€21.5 Million debt facility secured by NTR for Ora More Wind Project

NTR has recently announced it has successfully secured the first of a number of project debt facilities for wind projects under its new €250 million (US$275 million) wind fund. The first project, which has been secured with Ulster Bank Ireland Limited, has achieved the financial close of €21.5 million.

The senior debt facility will be utilized to finance the construction of the 15 MW Ora More wind farm based in Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. With construction underway, Ora More is expected to be operational by the end of the year.

The Ora More wind project will deploy six GE 2.5 MW turbines and will generate enough electricity to power approximately 13,000 homes with clean energy.  

NTR has entered into a power purchase agreement (PPA) with SSE Airtricity, who will takeover the renewable energy generated at Ora More for a period of 15 years.

Civil contractors on the project are Moriarty Civil Engineering and Construction and the owner engineer and technical advisor for NTR is Natural Power. Carson McDowell acted as legal advisors for NTR, A&L Goodbody were advisors of Ulster Bank while Everoze acted as technical advisors for Ulster Bank.

Marie Joyce, NTR’s Chief Financial Officer, said:

“This is the first project financial close since the launch of our new wind fund and we are very pleased to have partnered with Ulster Bank to achieve this important milestone. We expect 2016 to be a very active year for us as we finance and build out a number of projects that we have recently acquired.”

Stephen Masterson Head of Corporate Banking and Capital Markets for Ulster Bank, said:

"Ulster Bank is an active project financier of renewables projects in the Irish Single Electricity Market and commenting on the transaction, Ulster Bank considers the renewables market to be a growing and dynamic sector with strong returns potential.  It is a sector in which we like to participate with partners with a well established track record like NTR and we are delighted to be the sole project finance debt providers for the Ora More wind project.”