enXco Closes Financing on $385 Million Minnesota Wind Energy Project

Energy Resource, Jan 4, 2007

ENERGY RESOURCE-4 January 2007-enXco Closes Financing on $385 Million Minnesota Wind Energy Project(C)2007 JeraOne - http://www.jeraone.com

enXco Inc. has closed on the project financing for the $385 million Fenton Wind Energy Project under construction in Murray and Nobles counties, Minnesota, with its financial partners Union Bank of California and GE Energy Financial Services.

Minnesota's largest wind farm, the project pushes enXco's total U.S. wind energy development portfolio past the $1 billion mark.

Construction of the 205-megawatt wind farm, which enXco is managing, began in September, and is set for commercial operation in the second half of 2007.

Consisting of 137 GE 1.5 megawatt turbines, the Fenton wind farm will be operated and maintained by enXco Service Corporation. It will annually produce electrical energy estimated to be sufficient for more than 66,600 homes and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 550,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year, compared with equivalent fossil fuel generation.

Union Bank of California, GE Energy Financial Services and other equity investors are financing the project. Union Bank of California acted as lead underwriter for both the debt and equity financing for the project and will syndicate some of the equity. GE Energy Financial Services is the largest equity investor in the project, with a 50 percent of the equity stake sold by enXco.

Additional financial details were not disclosed.

Power from the Fenton project will be sold to Northern States Power, a subsidiary of Minnesota's largest utility, Xcel Energy, under a 25-year purchase agreement. Among the nation's utilities, Xcel is the largest purchaser of wind power. The state of Minnesota, which ranks fourth among U.S. states in terms of wind power installed, requires Xcel to obtain 11 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2015.

enXco Inc., an affiliate of EdF Energies Nouvelles, develops, constructs, operates and manages wind energy projects throughout the United States. For more information, visit www.enxco.com.

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((Distributed via M2 Communications Ltd - http://www.m2.com))

COPYRIGHT 2007 M2 Communications Ltd.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
 

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