Ventos de Sao Vicente Wind Park

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The Brazilian company Votorantim was granted authorizations to build seven wind power plants located in the state of Piaui (205.8 MW in total capacity, municipality of Curral Novo). The 35-year contracts were signed with the regulatory agency ANEEL starting in March 2016. Ventos de Sao Vicente Energias Renovaveis S.A., Votorantim's subsidiary, created seven special purpose companies to manage the projects (each power plant was established with 29.4 MW in capacity): EOL Ventos de Sao Vicente 08 - Ventos de Sao Vinicius Energias Renovaveis S.A. EOL Ventos de Sao Vicente 09 - Ventos de Santo Alberto Energias Renovaveis S.A. EOL Ventos de Sao Vicente 10 - Ventos de Santo Agostinho Energias Renovaveis S.A. EOL Ventos de Sao Vicente 11 - Ventos de Sao Vicente Energias Renovaveis S.A. EOL Ventos de Sao Vicente 12 - Ventos de Sao Casimiro Energias Renovaveis S.A. EOL Ventos de Sao Vicente 13 - Ventos de Sao Adeodato Energias Renovaveis S.A. EOL Ventos de Sao Vicente 14 - Ventos de Santo Afonso Energias Renovaveis S.A. The total investment in the power plants was estimated at US$ 211.9 million (BRL 784.7 million). Financial closure was achieved in June 2016 when the sponsor signed a US$ 67.5 million (BRL 250 million) financing agreement with Itau/Unibanco. The remaining costs were set to be equity financed. The government periodically runs public bidding for the sale of energy to the country´s distribution companies. The power plants won the public bidding that took place in 2013 by offering an average tariff of US$ 49.3/MWh (BRL 182.4/MWh). The project companies signed 20-year power purchase agreements with the several electricity distribution companies. All power plants committed to start supplying the market in 2018. The company was granted the right to take part in the government program called Regime Especial de Incentivos para o Desenvolvimento da Infra-Estrutura (Reidi). Companies selected to take part in this program were given tax cuts in the acquisition of capital equipment and construction material acquired both in the domestic and international markets (this incentive represented a cost reduction of about 9.25%). In addition, the company was allowed to use accelerated depreciation methods of accounting for construction expenditures.