Largest solar farm in Texas reaches financial close
Solar developer 174 Global Power has closed a $195 million DFI-backed facility to finance the 182MW Midway solar project – the largest solar project in Texas.
Credit Agricole, BNP Paribas, and Korea Development Bank provided a construction facility and tax equity bridge loan for the solar power plant. Bank of America Merrill Lynch acted as tax equity investor.
Construction started in 2016, funded by sponsor equity. The total cost of the project is estimated at around $260 million. The debt tenor is the same as the construction period, and it is expected to be operational by year-end 2018. Norton Rose Fulbright acted as legal counsel to the lenders.
The scheme is backed by a 25-year PPA with state-owned offtaker Austin Energy. The project is connected to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) which operates the electric grid and manages the deregulated market for 75% of the state.
174 Power Global is the Hanwha Group’s North American project development company and is a subsidiary of Hanwha Energy. It has 1GW of solar energy already contracted and a total of 6GW under development. The parent company will provide around 685,000 Hanwha Q cells modules to the project.
