Mainstream Renewable Power has closed the second phase of a $1800m (€1500m) wind and solar financing in Chile for its 1300MW Andes Renovables platform in the country.
The developer raised $620m in debt to fund construction of phase two of what is one of Latin America’s biggest wind and solar generation platforms, the company said.
The 630MW second phase of Andes Renovables, called Huemul, consists of three onshore wind and two solar PV generation projects, all in the pre-construction phase.
The projects will reach commercial operation between 2021 and 2022.
The Andes Renovables platform has raised $1.25bn to date.
The senior financing has been provided by a consortium of five banks that comprise IDB Invest, KfW IPEX-Bank, DNB, CaixaBank and MUFG.
It marks one of the largest renewable energy debt financing deals undertaken in the world this year.
A sixth bank, Santander, provided a value added tax facility.
Andes Renovables is $1.8bn three phase wind and solar generation platform comprised of seven onshore wind and three solar generation assets.
The first phase, Condor, reached financial close in November 2019 and is already over 30% complete.
The build-out has created nearly 1200 jobs across three regions of the country.
The next and final phase, Copihue, is comprised of one further wind asset with a 100MW capacity and is on track to reach financial close in the first half of 2021.
Vestas, Nordex Group and Siemens Gamesa are supplying the wind turbines and the wind farms will be built by Sacyr Industrial, SEMI and Elecnor.
The solar farms will be built by Sterling & Wilson and Metka-Egn.
All five main power transformers for the projects will be supplied by Hitachi ABB Power Grids.
Grid connection works will be carried out by Transelec, Inprolec and Isotron-Siemens consortium.
Mainstream chief executive Mary Quaney (pictured) said: “Reaching financial close on the second phase of our Andes Renovables platform is a further positive step on Mainstream’s journey to delivering Latin America’s number one wind and solar PV power generation platform.
“Despite the uncertain economic environment caused by Covid-19, today’s announcement is testament to the support of the banking consortium of Mainstream as the world’s leading independent developer of renewable energy.
“Mainstream is building something much bigger than the sum of its many parts – the Andes Renovables platform is evidence of renewable energy infrastructure on a massive scale and comes at a vital time for Chile as the country looks to invest in a green and sustainable recovery from Covid-19 by decarbonising its electricity system, as well as lowering the price of power generation nationwide.”
Mainstream Latin America general manager Manuel Tagle said: “This latest milestone comes as we are making excellent progress on the construction of the first phase of the platform and I have been delighted by the response of our teams on the ground to the challenging conditions that the pandemic has created.
“The economic and environmental impact of the platform is very significant and with a development pipeline of 2.7GW of wind and solar assets in addition to the Andes Renovables platform, Mainstream remains committed to making an even greater contribution to Chile for the foreseeable future.”