Pattern Energy has secured an $11bn non-recourse financing deal for the SunZia clean energy project, which includes SunZia Wind and SunZia Transmission.
The SunZia Wind facility, with 3.5GW of power generating capacity, is being built across Torrance, Lincoln, and San Miguel Counties in New Mexico.
The wind farm will be paired with SunZia Transmission, an 885km-long, 525kV high voltage direct current (HVDC) line with 3GW of transmission capability.
The line will be laid between central New Mexico and south-central Arizona.
The financing package includes various facilities such as an integrated construction loan, a letter of credit facility, and innovative tax equity term loan facilities.
The financing for the construction and term facilities, amounting to about $8.8bn, was provided by a consortium of international banks including BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, and MUFG Bank, among others.
These institutions also acted as initial coordinating lead arrangers and joint bookrunners.
The financing also includes a $2.25bn in tax equity term loan facility. It was provided by Banco Santander and Santander Bank, with additional support from Bank of America, GE Vernova’s Financial Services business, and others.
This facility has been designed to monetise the project's tax credit attributes.
Nomura Securities International and CPPIB Credit Investments III, a subsidiary of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) also provided initial equity capital for the project.
Pattern Energy CEO Hunter Armistead said: “Our hope is this successful financing of the largest clean energy infrastructure project in American history serves as an example for other ambitious renewable infrastructure initiatives that are needed to accelerate our transition to a carbon free future.
“Construction is well underway on this historic project that will deliver clean power with a generation profile that complements abundant solar generation available across the Western United States.”
The SunZia project is expected to generate over $20bn in economic impacts and could create more than 2,000 jobs during its construction phase.
The transmission line's engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor is Quanta Infrastructure Services Group, with Hitachi Energy supplying the HVDC technology.
Blattner Energy will oversee the wind project's construction, while GE Vernova and Vestas are supplying the wind turbines.
After securing the financing, the company placed a firm order with Vestas to supply 242 of its V163-4.5 MW turbines totalling 1.1GW along with multi-year Active Output Management 5000 (AOM 5000) service agreement.
Turbine delivery is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2025 and final commissioning is scheduled for the first half of 2026.
Once built, the project will generate enough clean energy to be delivered to about three million Americans.
Pattern Energy has also partnered with the New Mexico Renewable Energy Transmission Authority to develop the transmission project within New Mexico.
Groundbreaking on the project took place in September this year at SunZia East Converter Station in Corona, New Mexico.
It began after securing notice to proceed from the US Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
