The International Finance Corporation (IFC) will be providing a $300m financing package to build Phase 2 and 3 of the 215 MW Penonome wind farm in Panama.
The farm is scheduled to produce 448 GW of electricity every year.
Once the operation begins in 2015, the plant is expected to supplement 5 percent of Panama’s total annual power demand.
In April 2014, Goldwind has won the contract to supply the turbines for the Penonome wind farm.
The permanent magnet direct-drive wind turbines from Goldwind are designed to reduce the number of high-speed rotational parts avoiding the sources of expensive faults that require crane mobilization.
Last year, the first phase of the project started operation, with a capacity to produce 55 MW of electricity.
The 86-turbine project owned by InterEnergy will be the largest in Central America.
Earlier also InterEnergy has partnered with IFC for various energy producing investments in Latin America and the Caribbean region.
The financing can be considered as part of a commitment of providing strategic priority to develop future clean energy infrastructure in Panama.
The energy demand of Panama region is expected to increase by as much as 8 percent annually with a forecast of $3 billion in investments over the next decade to keep pace with energy demands.
The funding will include $80m in senior loans from IFC, a $60m senior loan from its Managed Co-Lending Portfolio Program and $144m in syndicated senior loans from other institutions and Panamanian banks.
In addition, IFC will also provide a subordinated loan of $16m.
IFC, a member of the World Bank, is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in developing countries.
Sabeena Wahid
editor@greentechlead.com