Santa Clara Wind Farm Complex

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In September 2009, CPFL Geracao paid BRL 31.6 million (USD 17.6m/EUR 12.1m) to Energias Renovaveis group to acquire seven special purpose vehicles with licenses for wind farms in northeastern Rio Grande do Norte state. The SPVs; which were titled Santa Clara I, II, III, IV, V and VI and the Eurus VI Wind Parks; became subsidiaries of CPFL Geracao, a 100% subsidiary of CPFL Energia [Brazil]. The total installed capacity of the SPVs was expected to be 188MW, although CPFL Energia also indicates that each wind farm was to have a capacity of 30MW, which would bring their total to 210MW. Power purchase agreements were originally won by the Energias Renovaveis group in 2009 during an auction of the Chamber of Commerce of Electric Energy(CCEE), guaranteeing an average of 76 MW of energy sales for 20 years, with an average price (to be brought up to date annually for the IPCA) of R$ 150/Mwh. In September 2010, the package of wind farm projects reached financial closure with the approval of a 574 Real (US $319 million) loan from Brazil's national development bank BNDES. The total project cost was estimated at 801.8 million real (US $455.6 million). The projects were in construction at the end of 2010 and expected to become operational in 2012. In April 2011, ERSA entered into a partnership with CPFL Energia to merge the generating assets of the two companies and to transfer the ownership and management of these assets to a newly created company called CPFL Renovaveis. CPFL Energia was set to maintain 63.6% of this new company's shares, while ERSA's shareholders would maintain 36.4%). Commercial operations commenced in March 2014.