CHICAGO, Sept. 24, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- E.ON
announced today it has secured more than $200 million in tax equity financing to repower
its Panther Creek I and Panther Creek II Wind Farms in Texas. GE Energy Financial Services ('GE EFS')
underwrote and committed a portion of the tax equity, which allows
E.ON to significantly increase the lifespan of the combined 258
megawatt (MW) sites.
The repowering project increases the sites' capacity factor
through the replacement and installation of new drive trains and
the upgrade of 172 GE 1.5MW wind turbines with longer rotors. The
project is expected to reach commercial operation in December 2019. It created 239 construction jobs
at the peak of the work on-site and required more than 325,000
person-hours to complete. Local counties are collectively projected
to receive more than $30 million in
property tax revenue from the two projects over the next 25
years.
"Repowering sites like Panther Creek I and II allows us to
increase the amount of clean, renewable power that the facilities
can produce while simultaneously providing additional investment in
local communities through increased tax revenues," said
Silvia Ortin, Chief Operating
Officer North America at E.ON. "This financing will help us
significantly prolong the operating life of these projects and
increase their capacity factor, allowing us to extract additional
value from existing infrastructure and continue growing the
American clean energy future."
"Leveraging GE's repowering technology and investment
capabilities, we are proud to help E.ON bring its first U.S.
repowering project to fruition and build on our track record of
investing tax equity in GE wind repower projects," said Gaurav
Raniwala, Global Renewable Energy Leader at GE EFS. "Located in
a strong wind resource regime, the repowering project enables
E.ON's Panther Creek wind farms to achieve maximum performance with
greater reliability, annual energy production uplifts and extended
wind farm life."
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated that
annual U.S. wind repowering investment could grow to $25 billion by 2030. With the largest installed
base in the U.S., GE is uniquely positioned to serve this sizable
market segment.
GE EFS continues to provide tax equity financing for new build
and repowered wind farms in the U.S. and expects to support GE's
repowering efforts of 3GW's of units by the end of 2020. On
average, wind turbines repowered by GE have seen a 20 percent
increase in annual energy production and 1.5 percent availability
improvement from pre-repower performance.
The Panther Creek I & II projects, part of E.ON's Panther
Creek cluster in Howard,
Glasscock, and Sterling counties in Texas, were originally completed in 2008.
Covering more than 65,000 acres, the combined Panther Creek project
cluster produces nearly 460 MW of wind energy. The repowering
project is part of the more than 1,000 MW of clean energy E.ON will
bring to the grid by the end of 2020.
About E.ON
E.ON is an international
investor-owned energy company, focusing entirely on energy
networks, customer solutions and renewables. In the 2018 financial
year, more than 43,000 employees from 100 nations generated sales
of around €30 billion. More than 50 million customers purchase gas
and electricity from E.ON. Within the global renewables segment
E.ON is a leading company. The company has already invested more
than $12 billion and operates nearly
5.4 gigawatts of renewable capacity.
About GE:
GE (NYSE:GE) drives the world forward
by tackling its biggest challenges: Energy, health,
transportation—the essentials of modern life. By combining
world-class engineering with software and analytics, GE helps the
world work more efficiently, reliably, and safely. For more than
125 years, GE has invented the future of industry, and today it
leads new paradigms in additive manufacturing, materials science,
and data analytics. GE people are global, diverse and dedicated,
operating with the highest integrity and passion to fulfill GE's
mission and deliver for our customers. www.ge.com
About GE Energy Financial Services:
A strategic
GE Capital business, GE Energy Financial Services is a global
energy investor with 35+ years managing assets through multiple
energy cycles. Drawing on its technical know-how, financial
strength and strong risk management, GE Energy Financial Services
invests in and provides capital solutions for long-lived and
capital-intensive projects and companies that help meet the world's
energy needs. It is headquartered in Connecticut with regional hubs in London, Houston, Washington
D.C., Singapore and
Nairobi. For more information,
visit www.geenergyfinancialservices.com and follow us on Twitter
@GEEnergyFinServ.
Media contacts:
Matt Tulis
Communication Manager
512.698.4043
matthew.tulis@eon.com
Jaclyn Cochrane
Communications Leader, GE Energy Financial Services
jaclyn.cochrane@ge.com
T +1 203 229 8525 | M +1 203 219 7463
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SOURCE E.ON