NEW YORK – A General Electric Co. unit and Citigroup Inc. provided tax equity financing to the U.S.’s first offshore wind farm, a 30-megawatt project recently completed in Rhode Island waters.
The company building the project, Deepwater Wind LLC, announced the financing from GE Energy Financial Services and Citigroup in a statement Tuesday, without disclosing the amount. The $300 million project is scheduled to begin commercial operations in November.
A separate GE unit, GE Renewable Energy, supplied the five 6-megawatt wind turbines for the project and will provide long-term maintenance service.
The hedge fund D.E. Shaw & Co. provided about $70 million in equity financing for the project, 3 miles off Block Island. The wind farm also received $290 million in debt financing from Societe Generale SA and KeyBank NA.
In tax-equity deals, developers with little or no profit sell tax credits they can’t use to investors, which then apply the benefits to their tax bills.