Financial close for 571 MW wind and solar project in Chile
Wind and solar developer Mainstream Renewable Power has reached financial close for the first phase of its wholly-owned and fully-contracted megaproject - a 1.3 GW Andes Renovables wind and solar power generation platform in Chile.
The company has successfully raised US$580 million in debt to fund construction of phase one of what is one of Latin American’s biggest wind and solar generation platforms.
The financing has been provided by a consortium of six banks: CaixaBank, DNB, KfW IPEX-Bank, Natixis, SMBC and Societe Generale. A seventh bank, Banco Santander, provided a VAT facility.
The 571 megawatt (MW) first phase of Andes Renovables – called Cóndor – is comprised of three wind and one solar PV generation assets. Construction has already commenced, and the assets will reach commercial operation in 2021. They will generate enough sustainable electricity to power 680,000 Chilean homes and will displace 656,000 metric tonnes of CO2 each year.
The new wind farms will be built by Sacyr Industrial and Elecnor, with Vestas, Nordex Acciona and Siemens Gamesa supplying the wind turbines. Sterling & Wilson were selected to build the Río Escondido solar farm, while grid connection works will be carried out by Transelec, CGE, HMV and Siemens. All four main power transformers for the projects will be supplied by the Swiss ABB Group.
Below is the full list of Condor projects:
- 84 MW Alena wind project in Biobio
- 185 MW Cerro Tigre wind project in Antofagasta
- 157 MW Tchamma wind project in Calama
- 145 MW Rio Escondido Solar Park in Copiapó.
