Santander, through its U.S. subsidiary Sovereign Bank N.A., and Prudential Capital Group have jointly structured and closed a $444 million financing to support Invenergy in the construction of California Ridge, a 200 MW wind farm located in Vermilion and Champaign counties, Ill.
According to the lenders, Invenergy will use the capital to construct and operate the wind farm, and the Tennessee Valley Authority has agreed to purchase the wind farm's output as part of a long-term power purchase agreement.
The lenders note the financing consists of bank facilities in the amount of $270 million, syndicated among five banks, and a longer-term $174 million senior note tranche provided by Prudential Capital Group and another institutional investor.
"The innovative hybrid structure takes advantage of the short-term flexibility of the banks and the long-duration appetite of the institutional market," explained Ric Abel, managing director at Prudential Capital Group's Energy Finance Group, in a statement.
According to the lenders, such a hybrid financial structure was previously used in the financing for Arlington Valley Solar Energy II, a 127 MW solar plant in Maricopa County, Ariz.
