Scout Clean Energy, a Colorado-based renewable energy developer, owner and operator, has completed construction and successfully closed tax equity funding for the 180 MW Heart of Texas Wind Farm (HTX), located in McCulloch County, Texas.
Scout is a portfolio company of Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners.
“HTX was completed on time and under budget, which is quite an achievement given the wide-spread disruption that COVID-19 has caused across the entire U.S. economy. It is a real credit to Scout’s construction management team, our suppliers, contractors and financiers, who have worked tirelessly to finish the project,” says Michael Rucker, CEO and founder of Scout Clean Energy.
“Reaching commercial operations at HTX brings Scout’s operational portfolio of wind energy generation to 698 MW, with a further 146 MW under construction and more than 4,000 MW in our active development pipeline,” he adds.
Scout started construction on HTX in September 2019. HTX will utilize 64 of the latest-generation GE 2 MW turbines. The project will use three models of turbines from this platform in order to optimize site production.
HTX has secured an offtake contract with Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty’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 and BHE Renewables invested tax equity financing.
Scout entered into a fixed-price balance-of-plant construction agreement with RES Americas Construction. 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.
Photo: Scout Clean Energy’s landing page
