Latin Finance - October 2008 - 32

wind farm finance working on two hydro plants in Chile, La Higuera and La Confluencia in equal partnership with Australia’s Pacific Hydro. The $165 million La Higuera project is already under construction with financing through an IFC syndicated project loan via DnBNOR, Nordea, SEB, HSH Nordbank and Santander. The plant is expected to be operational by mid 2009. The Norwegian firm is eyeing other countries in the region like Brazil, where it opened an office, although it is still strongly focused on the Chile and Peru axis. “Argentina and Colombia are also on the table but nothing is set up yet,” Gran adds. Other than revenue from the energy generated by wind and hydro, SN values carbon credits. “We have a very strong focus on carbon credits in the projects we are developing. In any of the projects we are looking at, receiving revenue for carbon credits is one of our investment criteria,” he adds. equipment with their own technology and some licensed. To finance operations, Impsa has become very active in capital markets, both for development of wind farms and manufacturing of equipment. The company has invested $100 million in a windmill factory in Suape, a town in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco. Impsa financed construction with its own resources, the company’s CFO Julio Dreizzen tells LatinFinance. And the BNDES recently approved a $40 million 10-year loan at 9% to replace these funds. The company is also in negotiations with German development bank GED for a $30 million facility to cover costs associated with construction. The company is investing $750 million in a wind farm project in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. Impsa has already signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with Brazilian electric distributor Eletrobras, which will pay approximately $160 per kilowatt hour in the Santa Catarina project and $147 per kilowatt hour in the Ceará complex. The price will be adjusted by Brazilian inflation, Dreizzen adds. The company is also eyeing investment in wind and hydro power in Vietnam, Dreizzen says, where the company already has been doing business by several years through the distribution of products. Forest of Windmills Meanwhile, Spanish holding Grupo Enhol has announced a $1 billion wind farm investment in Chile, in partnership with local holding company Phoenix. The farm, Parque Eólico Talinay, is expected to have 243 windmills in a 10,000 hectare facility. It will have an installed capacity of 500 megawatts and be operating by 2011. “Chile is the country with best legislation and legal framework for these types of investment that require large sums of capital and are long term,” says Enhol’s Latin America operations director Manuel Arroyo. The company is also developing the 64 megawatt La Virgen hydroelectric plant in Peru, at an investment of €65 million, and the Monterredondo wind farm in Chile. The latter is an investment of €70.6 million with an expected output of 74 megawatts. Enhol also has wind farm projects in India, Asia and Eastern Europe. LF Southern Winds Five years ago, Argentina’s Impsa, already a key player in the hydro sector, created its subsidiary Impsa Wind, which develops and operate wind farms and produces wind farm 32 LATINFINANCE October 2008

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Latin Finance - October 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Latin Finance - October 2008