sPower, a leading renewable energy provider, announced today the completion of a tax equity investment and syndicated construction and term loan facility totaling $786 million. KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. acted as Coordinating Lead Arranger for the syndicated debt facility totaling $519 million. KeyBank N.A., CIT Bank N.A., CoBank ACB, Coöperatieve Rabobank U.A., Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale (Nord/LB), Siemens Financial Services, Inc. and Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. were involved. The capital will be used to finance a group of nine solar projects that, when fully operational, will generate 339.4MW of renewable energy. While most of the projects are under construction, two recently achieved COD.
The size, complexity and number of parties involved make this a landmark transaction in the renewables arena. CohnReznick Capital Markets Securities (CRCMS), a boutique investment banking services firm, advised sPower on the tax equity investment. Stoel Rives LLP, a prominent law firm in energy project development and finance, assisted sPower with the negotiation and documentation of the financing.
“With a company that is growing so quickly, recycling capital is incredibly important,” said Ray Henger, sPower SVP structured finance. “Financing a large portfolio build out with a single tax equity provider and a syndicate of banks creates substantial efficiencies.”
Earlier this year, sPower commissioned an incremental 179.3MW of renewable energy projects including its inaugural wind project (60MW Latigo Wind Park in Utah) and a number of utility-scale solar projects in California, Massachusetts and New York.
Headquartered in Salt Lake City, with offices in San Francisco, Long Beach and New York City, sPower is a leading independent power producer (IPP) that owns and operates more than 150 utility and commercial distributed electrical generation systems across the U.S. and the UK (1.3GW by 2017). sPower is currently constructing the largest solar project supported by a Contract for Differences (CFD), a 103MW project in CA. To date, sPower has deployed more than $2 billion of capital for its solar and wind projects. With 6.7 gigawatts between operating, construction and pipeline, sPower is actively buying select utility-scale renewable assets in virtually any stage of development in the United States.