Mainstream completes financial close for three wind farms

© Johan Swanepoel – 123RF.com

Mainstream has now announced the successful completion of financial close for the wind farms with a combined capacity of 360 megawatts (MW). The wind farms, which are all located in the Northern Cape, represent an investment of approximately R9bn and are expected to commence construction this month.

In 2011 a Mainstream consortium was also awarded 238MW of wind and solar projects in the first round of the government's Renewable Energy Procurement Programme and all three projects are now in commercial operation.

The wind farms that have reached financial close are:

• The 140MW Khobab Wind Farm located in the District Municipality of Namakwa.
  
• The 140MW Loeriesfontein 2 Wind Farm located in the District Municipality of Namakwa.
  
• The 80MW Noupoort Wind Farm located in the Local Municipality of Umsobomvu.

"The team here at Mainstream are delighted with our success," Barry Lynch, Mainstream's managing director, Onshore Procurement, Construction and Operations said. "Mainstream has been awarded more megawatts than any other Developer under the Renewable Energy Procurement Programme. Between rounds one and three we have been awarded six projects with a combined capacity of nearly 600MW."

Important partnerships

"We are delighted to have recently delivered three wind and solar farms from round one into commercial operation on budget and once again we are working with many of the same debt and equity partners, construction contractors and turbine supplier. Partnerships are very important for us and our success in South Africa is a great example of this," Lynch said.

"Globally, Mainstream continues its aggressive wind and solar expansion programme; we have hundreds of megawatts in construction and operation in Ireland, Chile, Canada and of course South Africa. We are close to putting additional projects into construction in Chile in the coming months and recently received consent to build and operate two multi-billion pound offshore wind farms in the UK," he concluded.

The debt for the projects has been arranged and underwritten by Barclays and the Development Bank of Southern Africa. The consortium of Murray & Roberts and Conco has been appointed as construction contractor and Siemens Wind will supply and install the wind turbines. Simmons & Simmons and Bowman & Gilfillan acted as lenders' legal advisor. Fasken Martineau and Stoel Rives acted as sponsor legal counsel.