U.S. Exports Will Expand Wind Farm in Honduras
WASHINGTON, D.C. -Pennsylvanian workers will assemble twelve high-tech wind turbines for export, because the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) approved a $28.6 million direct loan to a Honduran power company.The transaction helps to expand a project first supported by the Bank in 2010, when its long-term financing of 51 x2.3MW U.S.-built turbine generators established the Cerro de Hula Wind Farm in Santa Ana, Honduras.
Building on the success of this impressive project, Ex-Im Bank is demonstrating the importance of its role to fill gaps in financing for creditworthy borrowers, explained Fred P. Hochberg, chairman and president of Ex-Im Bank.With this project, we've achieved an impressive win all around: for exporters, for U.S. workers, and for energy consumers in Honduras, because the wind-driven generators cost less to operate than their equivalent in fossil-fueled equipment.
assembly line at Gamesa Wind US near Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Ex-Im Bank's direct loan to an electrical
company in Honduras will support two hundred U.S. jobs
when twelve wind turbine generators are exported.
Renewable energy instead of fossil fuel is a collateral
benefit. (Photo courtesy of Gamesa Technology Corporation)
Gamesa Wind US, LLC, a technology firm based in Trevose, Pennsylvania, will supply and export six each of its high-efficiency model G-87 and G-97, 2.0MW turbines to generate electric power in rural Honduras.Gamesa operates two facilities in the U.S., a blades facility in Ebensburg, near Johnstown, and nacelle plant outside Philadelphia. In 2011, Gamesa was named Ex-Im Bank's Renewable Energy Exporter of the Year.Other U.S. exporters involved in the project will also benefit.They include engineering contractors, financial and legal advisors, and represent jobs in the states of Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Texas.
The project developer and borrower, Energia Eolica de Honduras S.A. (EEHSA), will sell the electricity to the Central American nation's utility, Empresa Nacional de Energia Electrica. EEHSA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Globeleq Mesoamerica Energy, headquartered in Costa Rica.
The Cerro de Hula Wind Farm now produces about six percent of the electrical power in Honduras.With the additions from this transaction, the wind farm will have 63 wind turbines with a total installed capacity of 126MW providing power to the national electric utility.
The primary supplier is a subsidiary of Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica, S.A, a renewable-energy concern headquartered in northern Spain.It ranks as the fourth-largest manufacturer of wind turbines and is in the top ten globally for wind farm development. Gamesa has installed nearly 4,000MW of its wind turbines in the U.S. since it started operations in 2005.Although the parent company is Spanish, Ex-Im Bank provides financing only for goods and services associated with production by U.S. workers.
The Americas are still far from realizing the full potential of a clean energy economy, said Gamesa North American Chairman David Flitterman, but at Gamesa, we're proud to manufacture American-made wind turbines that get shipped from our U.S. plants to countries far and wide. While the U.S. wind industry slowly is recovering after late renewal of the U.S. Production Tax Credit in January, thanks to Ex-Im Bank these export projects are creating new business opportunities in emerging markets and supporting good-paying jobs throughout the entire supply chain.
ABOUT EX-IM BANK:
Ex-Im Bank is an independent federal agency that helps to create and maintain U.S. jobs by filling gaps in private export financing at no cost to American taxpayers. In the past five years (from Fiscal Year 2008), Ex-Im Bank has earned for U.S. taxpayers nearly $1.6 billion above the cost of operations. The Bank provides a variety of financing mechanisms, including working capital guarantees, export-credit insurance and financing to help foreign buyers purchase U.S. goods and services.
Ex-Im Bank approved a total of $35.8 billion in authorizations in FY 2012 - an all-time Ex-Im record. This total includes more than $6.1 billion directly supporting small-business export sales - also an Ex-Im record. The Bank's authorizations in FY 2012 are supporting an estimated $50 billion in U.S. export sales and about 255,000 American jobs in communities across the country. For more information, visit www.exim.gov.