It's a huge project. The wind farm developer, privately-held Pattern Energy Group, just landed $11 billion in financing for SunZia. More after the first jump.
From Barron's, January 9:
The wind is picking up.
Tuesday, General Electric announced its biggest-ever order for onshore wind power generation equipment that will go into what’s expected to be the largest wind project in U.S. History—the SunZia wind farm in New Mexico.
Privately held Pattern Energy is buying 674 GE wind turbines with an electricity-generating capacity of 2.4 gigawatts. That brings Pattern’s GE Vernova-based wind capacity to 4.3 gigawatt hours.
“We are pleased to support Pattern Energy on this monumental project that reinforces the key role wind power has in delivering renewable energy to meet the growing demand for power in the western U.S. and in accelerating the energy transition,” said GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik in a news release.
“This project demonstrates GE Vernova’s ability to deliver on our workhorse strategy in Onshore Wind—producing fewer variants in large quantities at scale to drive quality and reliability across the fleet for our customers,” added Vic Abate, CEO of GE’s wind business.
The U.S. ended 2022 with some 300 gigawatts of renewable generating capacity, according to the Energy Department. That is a combination of mainly wind and solar generation....
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And from the Phoenix Business Journal, December 31:
Ambitious SunZia clean energy projects in Arizona, New Mexico land $11B financing
Pattern Energy Group LP has secured the $11 billion needed to back the construction of a huge wind farm utility project in New Mexico as well as a 550-mile transmission line into Arizona that company officials say could bring clean electric power to some 3 million people.
The SunZia projects, which have been in the works for nearly two decades, include construction of a wind farm across Torrance, Lincoln and San Miguel Counties in New Mexico, as well as a bi-directional interstate transmission line between South-Central Arizona and Central New Mexico.
Pattern Energy, based in San Francisco, has previously claimed the projects could total a combined 6,500 megawatts, while an independent study estimated they could generate $20.5 billion in direct and indirect economic impact.
Around 2,000 workers could be employed during construction, with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) signing onto the project in mid-December. Around 150 permanent jobs are expected to be created after the facilities are operational.
In its announcement that provided some details of the complex financing arrangement, Pattern Energy said the deal includes an integrated construction loan and letter of credit facility, two separate term facilities, an operating phase letter of credit facility, an innovative tax equity term loan facility and a holding company loan facility.
Pattern Energy was acquired by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) in 2020.
The financing included two major components, an $8.8 billion construction and term facilities package assembled with multiple partners as well as a $2.25 billion tax equity term loan facility that was led by Spanish multinational giant Banco Santander SA and its Santander Bank NA subsidiary....
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