Airtricity plans on trawling for lead banks to provide $500-600 million in short-term financing for wind farms in Colorado, New Mexico and Texas it has in the works for next year. The Dublin-based renewables company, which has been aggressively targeting North America (PFR, 6/27), expects to issue an RFP to prospective banks sometime in May, says Ciaran O’Brien, senior v.p. in Chicago.
The preference will be to select from a roster of lenders with wind experience, including HSH Nordbank, Dexia Crédit Local, BayernLB, the official says. Details on the debt will be evaluated as it comes closer to being arranged. Officials at the banks either did not return calls or declined to comment.
Airtricity, which levers its projects by 75-90% or more, wants to obtain bridge funding of about one-year to fund construction that it hopes to replace with equity from investors aiming to receive tax-benefits from investing in wind farms. The to-be-constructed projects are in the planning stages with Airtricity still at work on PPAs. O’Brien declined to identify the specific projects because he said deals and agreements are still in flux.
Given a growing tolerance for risk in wind generation, Eddie O’Connor, ceo at Airtricity, says capacity from its 2007 batch of projects, which could total some 400 MW, might be as much 50% sold on a merchant basis. “Taking merchant risk is not as big a deal as it was during the stretch in the late 1990s. It’s a quantifiable risk now,” he says.
Meanwhile, HypoVereinsbank is expected to provide $250 million in short-term funds for a series of Texas wind farms, O’Brien says. Syndication of that loan will kick off in the next few weeks, he says. In the fall, HVB was tapped to provide construction funds for a trio of wind farms in Idaho, New York and Texas (PFR, 11/14). Calls to officials at the bank were not returned.
O’Brien says plans for its Idaho project collapsed, but its Gamesa- and Siemens-manufactured turbines will be directed to planned farms in ERCOT. He would not comment further on its plans in Idaho.