Mulilo De Aar 1 Wind Farm

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The 96.48MW Mulilo De Aar 1 Wind Farm project reached financial closure in July 2015. This greenfield BOO project worth of ZAR2 billion (US$180 million) would entail the development of a wind farm with total capacity of 96.48MW in De Aar region of the Northern Cape Province in South Africa. It was a part of Window 3 of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) by Department of Energy (DoE). The DoE selected six solar photovoltaic, seven wind, two concentrated solar power, one landfill gas and one biomass project as preferred bidders in October 2013 for the third round of its REIPPP and the sponsors for each project were scheduled to simultaneously sign power purchase agreements with state utility Eskom and reach financial close on 30 July. The financial closure was delayed mainly due to the insufficient transmission infrastructure for the generation facilities. On July 22, DoE confirmed that the 17 projects involved in the third round of REIPPP would not reach financial close on 30 July 2014, as planned. Unlike in previous rounds of the REIPPP, where the signing of project documents and financial close happened simultaneously, none of the Window 3 deals was expected to close before January 2015 at the earliest, according to sources working on the transactions. The Construction of the project was scheduled to start in October 2015, and the wind farm was expected to start operation on 31 October 2015. China Longyuan Power Group was selected as EPC contractor and the project company was Longyuan Mulilo De Aar Wind Power (RF) Pty Ltd, composed of Mulilo Wind Enterprises (20%), Longyuan South Africa Renewables (60%), Mulilo De Aar Wind Community (RF) (12.5%) and ETU Energy Resources (RF) (7.5%). Financing comprised US$135 million (ZAR1.5 billion) term loan and US$45 million(ZAR509 million) equity. Nedbank and Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa are MLAs. Financial close occurred on 6 February 2015.