Penonome Wind

completed

The Project consists of the construction, operation and maintenance of the second phase of the Penonome WPP, consisting of a total of 215 MW of installed wind power capacity in Coclé Province, approximately 150 km west of Panama City (the “Project”). IFC proposes (i) a Senior Loan from IFC’s own account of US$66m, (ii) MCPP loan of US$49.5m, (iii) mobilization of up to US$205m from DFIs and Commercial banks and (iv) potentially an IFC equity investment of US$20m. The Penonome WPP was divided by the granting authority into four different concessions, namely: Rosa de los Vientos, Portobelo, Marañon, and Nuevo Chagres, to be developed in four phases. Phasing of project development does not exclusively correspond to one concession area, meaning that each phase can fall across various concessions at one time. The 1st Phase of the development consists of 55 MW of installed capacity. It was built in 2013 and is owned and operated by a consortia led by Goldwind through a special purpose vehicle (SPV) under the name of UEP Penonome I. The 2nd and 3rd Phases (the “Project”) of the Penonome WWP consist of 215 MW of installed capacity. The project will be built in 2014/15 and is owned and operated by UEP Penonome II S.A., an SPV controlled by Inter-Energy Holdings (the “Client”). Finally, the 4th Phase will consist of 68 MW of installed capacity and has yet to be awarded to a designee but is planned for construction in 2015/6. When fully completed, the Penonome WPP is expected to have a total installed capacity of 337.5 MW. The Penonome WPP extends over approximately 18,500 ha of modified habitat comprised mostly of grasslands used for animal grazing, subsistence farming, harvesting of seasonal cash crops (e.g. rice), and commercial teak plantations. The project is located adjacent to the Pan-American Highway and the national electric grid, minimizing the need for opening new rights-of-way and land acquisition in the area. Power will be evacuated through two existing 230 kV transmission lines of the Central American Electrical Inter-Connection Transmission System (SIEPAC) managed by the Electric Transmission Company of Panama (ETESA). A total of 135 Goldwind wind turbine generators (WTG) will be installed during all phases of the wind farm development, of which 86 will form part of the project to be financed by IFC. Each turbine will have a generating capacity of 2.5 MW and will require 0.55 ha of land. WTGs will be spaced 200 m apart from one another in a series of rows and will have a tower height of 90 m and a rotor blade diameter of 52.2 m extending from the hub (nacelle). With two exceptions were solutions have been amicably agreed with affected people, WTGs have been placed a minimum distance of 500 m from the closest dwelling to safeguard against excessive noise and other nuisances (shadow flicker and blade glint) for potentially affected people, as per Panamanian requirement and GIIP.