http://www.newenergyworldnetwork.com/renewable-energy-news/by-technology/wind/enxco-closes-3-5bn-financing-for-lakefield-wind-farm.htm

US renewable energy developer enXco, an EDF Energies Nouvelles company, has closed $3.5bn in financing for its 205MW Lakefield wind project in Minnesota, which includes the largest leveraged lease transaction carried out with commercial lenders in the US.

The financing comes at a critical time, since construction work on the wind farm began last September and the project is on schedule to be fully operational later this year. This is the second wind farm that enXco has developed and built with Indianapolis Power & Light, whch is set to buy the power generated from the project under a 20-year power purchase agreement.
Dexia Credit Local and Société Générale led the club debt portion of the financing, which brought together lenders including Cobank, Banco Santander, Helaba, and Lloyds TSB. This section of the financing includes a 15-year term loan, ancillary credit facilities and a bridge loan to the ITC cash grant enXco secured from the US Department of Energy.
Union Bank and MetLife are providing construction financing for the project through a leveraged lease structure where they purchase the project and lease it back to the developer, enXco, which will retain an option to buy the facility back.
Jim Peters, vice president of project finance for enXco, said, ‘This leveraged lease transaction represents the largest in the US with commercial lenders and further demonstrates the performance of enXco’s project finance group, who with this latest transaction have now closed $3.5bn of financing facilities. We extend our gratitude to our financial partners, and recognize their dedication to this project and to enXco.’
The Lakefield wind farm, which includes 137 wind turbines manufactured by General Electric, will be the ninth wind project enXco has developed in Minnesota state, bringing its installed capacity in the state up to over 914MW. It is also the largest wind farm the developer has taken on in the state since the Fenton wind project in 2007.