Scout Clean Energy, a Colorado based renewable energy developer and operator, has announced the closing of construction financing and tax equity commitments for the 180MW Heart of Texas Wind Farm ("HTX") located in McCulloch County, Texas.
HTX was recently acquired by Scout from RES (Renewable Energy Systems) Americas who originally developed the project as part of the second phase of the Rattlesnake Wind Farm which commenced operations in 2018 and shares a transmission line with the HTX. The project will utilize sixty-four (64) of the latest generation GE 2-MW platform wind turbines. HTX utilizes three types of 2-MW platform turbines each with different nameplate capacity and rotor size to optimize site production.
According to Scout, Heart of Texas will provide zero emissions renewable power for both Texas industry and thousands of homes.
HTX has secured an offtake contract with Allianz Global & Specialty, Inc.'s Alternative Risk Transfer unit, in partnership with Nephila Climate. REsurety provided the risk analytics supporting the long-term offtake transaction. Construction financing of $255 million (including letters of credit) was provided by KeyBank as Administrative Agent, Rabobank and CoBank, ACB. GE Energy Financial Services ("GE EFS") underwrote and committed a portion of the tax equity financing. For all three Scout projects in the U.S., GE has provided wind turbine technology and tax equity support.
Scout has entered into a fixed-price balance-of-plant construction agreement with RES Americas Construction who is also completing construction work on Scout's 300MW Ranchero Wind Farm also located in Texas. The asset management and post-construction operations will be undertaken by Scout.
The project has tax incentive agreements in place with McCulloch County, McCulloch County Hospital District, and Lohn Independent School District. It is estimated that the county will receive approximately $36 million in tax revenue over the life of the project.
The Heart of Texas Wind Farm is expected to be operational by April 2020.
