Global wind and solar company Mainstream Renewable Power today announces the successful completion of financial close for three wind farms in South Africa with a combined capacity of 360 megawatts. The wind farms, which are all located in South Africa’s Northern Cape Province, represent an investment of approximately 760 million US dollars and are expected to commence construction this month.

The debt for the projects has been arranged and underwritten by Barclays and the Development Bank of Southern Africa. The consortium of Murray & Roberts and Conco has been appointed as construction contractor and Siemens Wind will supply and install the wind turbines. Simmons & Simmons and Bowman & Gilfillan acted as Lenders’ Legal Advisor. Fasken Martineau and Stoel Rives acted as Sponsor Legal Counsel.

In 2011 a Mainstream consortium was also awarded 238 megawatts of wind and solar projects in the first South African Government’s Procurement Programme and all three projects are now in commercial operation.

Barry Lynch, Mainstream’s Managing Director, Onshore Procurement, Construction and Operations said: “Mainstream has been awarded more megawatts than any other Developer under the South African Government’s Renewable Energy Procurement Programme. Between Rounds 1 and 3 we have been awarded six projects with a combined capacity of nearly 600 megawatts.”

He continued: “Globally, Mainstream continues its aggressive expansion programme; we have hundreds of megawatts in construction and operation in Ireland, Chile, Canada and South Africa. We are close to putting additional projects into construction in Chile and we recently received consent to build and operate two multi-billion pound offshore wind farms in the UK.”

The wind farms that have reached financial close are:

• Khobab – 140MW
• Loeriesfontein 2 – 140MW
• Noupoort – 80MW

The equity members of the consortium consist of:

• Mainstream Renewable Power.
• Actis, through its Actis Energy 3 Fund, a leading energy investor in emerging markets.
• Thebe Investment Corporation; one of South Africa’s most established broad based BEE Investment management companies (advised by Bridge Capital).
• The IDEAS Managed Fund, managed by Old Mutual Investment Group, one of Africa’s largest independent investment managers.
• Futuregrowth Asset Management, a leading investor in developmental assets.
• Genesis Eco-Energy in partnership with Lereko Metier Sustainable Capital.
• Local Community members through established community trusts.

For more information visit http://www.mainstreamrp.com