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US wind breaks
11 September 2009
The fast-track US treasury's cash grants programme has catalysed the flow of debt and equity to US wind projects. But sponsor consensus on the best financial structures – and an easier life for bankers – is still far off. By Tom Nelthorpe
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[wind finance]
[project finance]
US renewable power project developers have moved from being cautiously optimistic to quietly confident. The stimulus bill, otherwise known as the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act, has had a much more immediate impact on the renewables project finance market than on the lumbering US PPP sector. Sponsors, even those that have yet to decide which of the raft of incentives to use, have been able to raise both tax equity and debt.
Sponsors of every type – foreign and domestic independent power producers, foreign and domestic utilities, and, most intriguingly, foreign and domestic private equity players – are converging on US wind and the US Department of the Treasury, which is administering the provision of cash grants to renewables producers, has just issued a first tranche of $502 million in grants.
Gearing up for grants
The big winner from the first tranche was Iberdrola, which took in $294 million of the total, for...
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