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Awards
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GE Energy Financial Services is recognized for its energy investment structuring expertise as well as its technical know-how. Awards the GE business unit has received demonstrate its commitment to helping customers grow through new investments and strong partnerships.
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EFS’ Co-Owned Desert Sunlight wins Best Renewable Deal Award
The widely read trade publication “Power Intelligence” has just recognized GE Energy Financial Services’ co-owned Desert Sunlight solar power project under construction in California as “Best Renewables Deal.” “Power Intelligence” noted that financiers of the 550-megawatt photovoltaic project were “tapping multiple markets and investors to fund relatively new technology, all while weathering one of the more volatile periods of the euro-zone debt crisis.” As one of the largest US renewables project finance deals of the year, the Desert Sunlight funding was the first utility-scale photovoltaic financing broadly syndicated to the bank and bond markets, and served as a catalyst to introduce First Solar’s thin-film technology to mid-tier institutional investors.
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Tim Howell accepts the North American Sponsor of the Year 2011 award for EFS at the 13th Annual Project Finance Deals of the Year Awards Dinner in New York City on March 1. Also shown, from left to right, Cris Matteson, Jon Stark, Vimal Chauhan and Don Kyle. (Credit: Project Finance Magazine)
2011 North American Sponsor of the Year
Project Finance Magazine was “impressed by EFS’ [GE Energy Financial Services] substantial equity and debt activity across technologies and appetite for early- to late-stage project development. These factors and its receipt of the North American solar and single asset deals of the year for the Desert Sunlight and CPV Sentinel projects prompted [it] to select EFS as the 2011 North American sponsor of the year.” Below is additional information about the winning transactions from Project Finance Magazine
North American Single Asset Deal of the Year 2011: CPV Sentinel
The $795 million debt financing for the $900 million CPV Sentinel peaking power plant marked the moment when the US power market resembled – briefly – its late 1990s glory days. The deal won hold commitments of $200 million from its lead arrangers, and sold down to another 18 institutions.
North American Solar Deal of the Year 2011: Desert Sunlight
Just as the Department of Energy’s financial institutions partnership program (FIPP) was winding down, project developer First Solar lined up EFS and NextEra Energy Resources to each buy half of the 550-MW project near Palm Springs, CA. The project also received a partial guarantee of $1.46 billion in loans provided by a syndicate of private institutional investors and commercial banks headed by lead lenders Goldman Sachs Lending Partners LLC and Citigroup. The financing drew heavily on the precedent of the 845-MW Caithness Shepherds Flat wind financing, a $1.4 billion FIPP deal that closed in December 2010.
The Project Finance Awards—the first in the industry—recognize innovation, deal repeatability, best practice, problem solving, risk mitigation, value for money and speed of delivery in the financing of infrastructure projects, large or small. Visit http://www.projectfinancemagazine.com/Deals.html for more information.
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Value Add Award: Shepherds Flat
“…it was GE’s stellar work in developing the Shepherds Flat wind farm at the height of a world economic crisis that won the company the award. GE EFS [GE Energy Financial Services] continued its established role of providing efficient equity solutions to sponsors like Caithness Energy on renewable power projects. GE EFS has been a consistently strong partner adding value for developers in the US market, helping them make the most of government incentives such as production tax credits and grants.” – Fiona Sinclair Scott, “IJ Awards: Value Add 2010,” Infrastructure Journal, April 1, 2011
For additional information about the Shepherds Flat deal, click here and here.
Photo of the construction of the wind farm can also be viewed here.
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Deals of the Year: Shepherds Flat
Energy Risk identified the Shepherds Flat wind project as one of the key deals that helped shape the energy market because it involved a multi-market financing structure for construction of the world’s largest wind farm. This $1.3 billion deal showcases the innovation and creativity that moves the energy markets forward even under difficult local and global conditions. As quoted in a March 1st Energy Risk article, Douglas Schultz, the FIPP programme manager at the DOE who oversaw the deal, said, "The success of this transaction has provided a stable platform for working with private-sector lenders on a wide range of senior debt financings, even for innovative technologies. Without a clear understanding of how the process works, lenders are understandably reluctant to be the first. We've been able to work through a lot of fundamental structural issues about how the DOE would relate with private sector lenders. There are more transactions due to close later this year that will reinforce the Shepherds Flat model." – “DOE Breaks New Ground with Wind Farm Financing,” Energy Risk, March 1, 2011
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Best Renewables Deal: Shepherds Flat
An innovative structure, size and unique challenges of working with a new government initiative make the $1.2 billion debt package backing the Shepherds Flat wind farm the winner for best renewable deal of 2010. “Best Renewables Deal: Shepherds Flat”, Power Finance & Risk, April 21, 2011
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Renewable Energy Deal of the Year: Caithness Shepherds Flat Wind Farm Financing
“The sheer size of the 845MW Shepherds Flat wind project made it a strong contender for Environmental Finance’s Renewable Energy Transaction of the Year. But its structuring also allowed its sponsors to access new pools of finance for this kind of project, leveraging government support to pull significant capital into the wind energy market. After a lengthy and complicated process, the Department of Energy (DOE) agreed to guarantee 80% of the $1.3 billion financing under the Financial Institutions Partnership Program (FIPP) in December 2010, making the Oregon-based project the first to go through the process tapping multiple markets. – Gloria Gonzalez, “Environmental Finance Awards 2011: Saluting the leaders”,Environmental Finance, July 26, 2011
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Hydro Project of the Year – The Toba Montrose Hydroelectric Project
“It is a testament to the partnership between Plutonic and GE EFS [GE Energy Financial Services], the dedication and skill of the people working on the project and the commitment from everyone involved, that this project was completed on time, on budget and is now operating efficiently.” – “2011 Excellence in Renewable Energy Awards -- Projects of the Year,” Renewable Energy World Magazine, March 9, 2011.
Visit the project’s website to get the latest updates on the project.
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