Financing complete for Uruguay wind farm

Akuo Energy, a French independent power producer, has announced that financing for the Florida II Wind Farm in Uruguay was completed in “record” time with the addition of KfW IPEX-Bank (KfW) to the fray of financiers backing the project. 

KfW committed $78.5 million to the project in the form of long-term debt, putting the German institution at the table with other backers including Danish Eksport Kredit Fonden (EKF), which provided senior debt, and project equity partner Japanese renewable energy giant Eurus Energy Holdings Group.

The collaboration builds on the firms' successful partnership in the 42-megawatt (MW) Minas Wind Farm, also in Uruguay, which was finalised in August 2013. Similar to that endeavor, the Florida II project is partly covered by a guarantee from EKF.

“Uruguay is a country with exceptional renewable wind resources, and we would like to pay tribute to that country's pragmatism and efficiency in implementing its policy of promoting the deployment of renewable energies,” said Eric Sotto, co-founder and chief executive of Akuo Energy, in a statement. “We are delighted to be able to build our third project there, which will take our installed capacity in that country to almost 150MW and further establishes our company's status as a leading wind power player in Uruguay.” 

Sotto went on to add that Florida II is evidence of the expertise the company acquired through the development of financing for the Minas and Florida I wind farm projects.

“The very same financial partners who helped us finance Minas have decided to also accompany us on Florida II – and in record time! A great illustration of the trust such major players as Eurus Energy, KfW IPEX-Band and EKF have in us.”

Similar to Florida I, the Florida II wind farm is expected to have a generating capacity of 50MW once completed, enough to provide power to an estimated 30,000 households.

Through a 20-year, dollar-denominated and inflation-indexed power purchase contract, Uruguayan state-owned grid operator UTE will act as offtaker of the energy produced by the wind farm, which will be outfitted with 15 Vestas V117 turbines capable of producing nominal capacity of 3.3MW each.