Mainstream Renewable secures corporate facility from Macquarie

Mainstream Renewable Power, an independent renewable energy developer, has secured a corporate facility with the Macquarie Group for up to €60m.

The company, as per the terms of the deal, will receive €40m initially with a further €20m to be injected by Macquarie on accomplishing stipulated conditions.

Commenting on the agreement Mainstream’s Chief Executive Eddie O’Connor said that the investment from Macquarie was secured after much due diligence that lasted over nine months.

"After going through our initial development stage, Mainstream is now embarking on a very strong growth trajectory. We have a team of over 150 specialised staff actively developing more than 50 large scale wind and solar projects across four continents.

"We have started construction on over 325MW of wind and solar projects in four countries and this investment means we will be bringing more projects into construction as well as expanding our global project development portfolio," elaborated O’Connor.

Macquarie Group’s Chief Executive in Europe, Middle East and Africa, David Fass, commented, "We believe Mainstream is uniquely positioned to benefit from the development of the offshore wind sector, which will play an increasingly important part in the generation mix over the next decade."

"This transaction continues Macquarie’s strong track record across the renewable energy sector as an investor, adviser, developer, operator and financier," said Fass.

The company also secured €16.8m from several high net worth individuals to fund its projects that include a 5,000MW Energy Bridge wind project in Ireland.

Mainstream is also constructing 325MW worth wind and solar projects in Ireland, South Africa, Chile and Canada; construction on another 138MW wind farm and two 50MW solar projects expected to commence this year.

The company expects its first Irish project, a 9MW wind farm to start commercial operations in November 2012 besides commencing construction of a 33MW Negrete Cuel Wind farm in Chile and the 46MW Old Man wind farm in Canada.

A planning application was recently filed for Mainstream’s 450MW Neart na Gaoithe offshore wind farm in Scotland with work also progressing on two mega-scale offshore wind farms in England and Germany.