Noutati | Eficienţa Energetică

http://www.newenergyworldnetwork.com/renewable-energy-news/by-technology/wind/world%e2%80%99s-largest-wind-farm-secures-federal-loan-guarantee.html

The US government has agreed to provide a partial loan guarantee for a $1.3bn loan to support the world’s largest wind farm, which is to sell all of its power and renewable energy credits to Southern California Edison (SCE).

The loan from the Department of Energy (DOE) will finance the Caithness Shepherds Flat wind facility in eastern Oregon, which is sponsored by Caithness Energy and GE Energy Financial Services.
With a capacity of 845MW, the Caithness wind farm is the largest energy project to receive a loan guarantee under the Financial Institution Partnership Program, the DOE said.
The $1.3bn loan is funded by a group of 26 institutional investors and commercial banks led by Citi, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, RBS Securities and WestLB Securities.
The wind farm will be the first in the US to deploy GE’s 2.5xl wind turbines, which have already been used in Europe and Asia. The project will use 338 of the turbines, which are designed to increase reliability and grid integration.
The wind farm is due to sell all of its energy to SCCE under 20-year fixed price power purchase agreements.
According to company estimates, the project will directly employ 400 workers during construction and 35 workers during operation.
Oregon state Governor Ted Kulongoski said, ‘State policies coupled with investments from the federal government, local governments, private sector partners and landowners created the environment in which we are able to create new jobs, new clean forms of energy and new opportunities that better our state and our nation.’
The DOE said it has now offered conditional commitments for loan guarantees to support 16 clean energy projects totaling nearly $16.5bn.