Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners (Quinbrook), and GE have announced that the Quinbrook Low Carbon Power Fund has closed construction and tax equity financing of the 200MW first stage of the GE-powered 365MW Persimmon wind farm project in Oklahoma, USA.
Quinbrook recently acquired a 75 per cent controlling equity stake in Persimmon and formed a joint venture with Elawan Wind (formerly Gestamp Wind), the initial developer of the project. Persimmon secured dual interconnection agreements for connection to the Southwest Power Pool network in Oklahoma, for up to 365MW of capacity split into two phases. The first phase is 200MW, with completion and first generation scheduled for mid-2018. GE Renewable Energy is the project’s wind turbine supplier, providing 73 of its 2.5MW turbine and seven 2.3MW turbines. GE Energy Financial Services has committed to provide over US$ 190 million of tax equity financing to the project and served as bookrunner, administrative agent and lender for US$ 252 million of credit facilities. GE Energy Financial Services arranged financing from CIT, MUFG and Rabobank, who were the Joint Lead Arrangers on the transaction.
