London-based Cubico Sustainable Investments – a global renewable energy investor backed by Canadian pension funds – has achieved financial close for the 162 MW Wagyu solar PV project in Brazoria County, Texas, located near Houston.
This is the fourth project to reach financial close in the 580 MW, five-project solar portfolio Cubico acquired from Cypress Creek Renewables in January. The three projects that closed prior to Wagyu were Palmetto Plains and Huntley in South Carolina and Crooked Run in North Carolina.
Construction of the Wagyu project is underway through an EPC contract with Renewable Energy Systems. The project is expected to become fully operational in the third quarter of 2020. Cypress Creek is the O&M provider.
The project has a 15-year corporate power purchase agreement (PPA) with Starbucks and a 12-year physical hedge with BP.
Ken Fleming, senior vice president of origination and marketing at BP, says, “With solar energy projected to grow rapidly in the coming decades, BP sees significant opportunity to offer affordable, reliable, low-carbon power solutions to the world. This project further demonstrates BP’s commitment to meeting society’s demand for cleaner, better energy.”
Project finance debt was provided by HSBC, Nord LB and Rabobank, and tax equity was provided by US Bank, the same financing parties that participated in the Palmetto Plains and Huntley projects. Cubico was advised by Winston & Strawn (legal), CCA (financial), Enertis (technical) and WSP (owner’s engineer).
