BayWa’s renewables business has completed the financing of its Broken Cross wind farm, in Scotland, with NatWest.
Broken Cross is being constructed in South Lanarkshire and will comprise of nine turbines, with a total planned capacity of up to 43.2MW.
Th turbines are now being installed on site and the wind farm is planned to be commissioned this year.
The total financing volume for this project is around £40m.
As recently announced, a six-year power supply agreement for the project was signed between SmartestEnergy and BayWa r.e.
The Broken Cross Wind Farm site was previously an opencast coal mine and throughout the construction of the wind farm, preserving and restoring the land was prioritised to provide habitat to a variety of local flora and fauna.
Broken Cross Wind Farm will provide an annual community benefits package of £5000 per installed megawatt, which equates to £216,000 per year indexed linked to be shared between the communities of Coalburn, Lesmahagow, Douglas Water and Rigside.
Christine McGregor, Managing Director at BayWa r.e. UK, said: “We are delighted to partner with NatWest for the long-term financing of the Broken Cross Wind Farm, and proud of the BayWa r.e. team that keeps on delivering projects of this calibre.
“Reaching financial close represents an important milestone, demonstrating that Scottish onshore wind assets, such as Broken Cross, persist to be attractive investments propositions.
“Scotland is an incredible source of onshore wind energy for the UK, and we are committed to supporting the government’s net zero ambitions, by providing more clean energy to UK households and businesses.”
Lyudmil Banev, Project Finance Director at NatWest, added: “We are delighted to have supported BayWa r.e. as sole lender, arranger and hedging bank for this transaction.
“The deal demonstrates NatWest’s continued commitment to the UK renewable energy sector and our capability in UK wind in particular, as well as our ability to deploy our balance sheet effectively and flexibly to underpin important transactions for the market on a sole lender basis.”
The project financing was supported by legal advisers Shepherd and Wedderburn, who acted for BayWa r.e., and DLA Piper UK, who acted for the funder.
The transaction was also supported by Wood and QMPF.