Chadbourne Advises on US$508 Million of Construction Loans for Two US Wind Projects

Chadbourne & Parke represented the lenders, including the joint lead arrangers Société Générale and Bayerische Landesbank, New York Branch (BayernLB), in a US$222 million construction loan for the 150 MW Border Winds project in Rolette County, North Dakota and a US$286 million construction loan for the 200 MW Pleasant Valley Wind project in Mower and Dodge Counties, Minnesota. Both deals recently reached financial close.

Renewable Energy Systems Americas Inc. is the sponsor of both the Border Winds and Pleasant Valley projects, which will utilize 175 V100-2.0 MW Vestas turbines and are expected to be completed in October 2015. Upon completion, the projects will be transferred to Xcel Energy, a Minneapolis-based utility holding company, which will own and operate them. Xcel Energy has estimated that Border Winds will avoid approximately 320,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, and that Pleasant Valley will avoid approximately 419,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, in addition to reducing customer costs by millions of dollars over their lifetimes.

The Chadbourne team that worked on the transactions included Benjamin Koenigsberg, Chadron Edwards, William Nicholson, Christine Brozynski, Eli Katz, Mike Masri, Sue Cowell, Donna Bobbish, Scott Bank, Elizabeth Miller and Marjorie Glover.

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