Eon has secured more than $200m in tax equity financing to repower its 258MW Panther Creek 1 and 2 wind farms in Texas.
GE Energy Financial Services underwrote and committed a portion of the tax equity.
The repowering will increase the sites’ capacity factor through the replacement and installation of new drive trains and the upgrade of 172 GE 1.5MW wind turbines with longer rotors.
Commercial operations are expected in December 2019. The repowering has created 239 jobs during peak construction.
Local counties are collectively projected to receive more than $30m in property tax revenue from the two projects over the next 25 years.
Eon North America chief operating officer Silvia Ortin said: “Repowering sites like Panther Creek 1 and 2 allows us to increase the amount of clean, renewable power that the facilities can produce while simultaneously providing additional investment in local communities through increased tax revenues.
“This financing will help us significantly prolong the operating life of these projects and increase their capacity factor, allowing us to extract additional value from existing infrastructure and continue growing the American clean energy future.”
GE Energy Financial Services global renewable energy leader Gaurav Raniwala said: “Leveraging GE’s repowering technology and investment capabilities, we are proud to help Eon bring its first US repowering project to fruition and build on our track record of investing tax equity in GE wind repower projects.
“Located in a strong wind resource regime, the repowering project enables Eon’s Panther Creek wind farms to achieve maximum performance with greater reliability, annual energy production uplifts and extended wind farm life.”