Leeward Renewable Energy Completes Repowering and Financing For Mendota Hills Wind Farm; New Technology and Equipment Enhance Performance, Increase Capacity

Dallas, TX – BUSINESS WIRE – April 17, 2019 — Leeward Renewable Energy, LLC (“Leeward”) today announced the company has successfully completed the full-scale repower of its Mendota Hills Wind Farm (“Mendota”) located in Lee County, Illinois.  Leeward achieved a financial close with a subsidiary of Citi, which provided tax equity financing for the project.

The full-scale repower of Mendota included the decommissioning of the existing wind turbine generators (“WTGs”) and the installation of new foundations and WTGs to maximize efficiency and extend the life span of the wind farm.  Mendota replaced the 63 legacy Gamesa WTGs with 29 SG 2.6-126 WTGs, increasing the capacity from approximately 50 MW to 76 MW.  With turbine technology improvements, Mendota will increase reliability, performance and reduce operational cost.

Leeward entered into a long-term power purchase agreement with Digital Reality and will provide approximately 276,000 MWhs of renewable wind power annually.  Through the construction phase of Mendota, Leeward generated approximately 250 jobs and will increase its contribution to Lee County in the form of property tax payments. 

“This was an ambitious project that is creating tremendous benefits and efficiency for our customers and Lee County,” said Greg Wolf, Leeward Renewable Energy CEO. “The Mendota project illustrates the innovation that Leeward is striving for in both our development initiatives as well as management of our existing assets to build and maximize our portfolio.”

In addition to working with Leeward on the repowering initiative, Siemens Gamesa provides operations and maintenance for the sites.

The repowering of Mendota was completed on March 21, 2019.

About Leeward Renewable Energy, LLC

Leeward Renewable Energy is a leading US-based independent power company. Leeward has a portfolio of 19 wind power facilities in nine states with a total owned interest of 1,720 GW that use proven, best-in-class technology. Additionally, Leeward has a development pipeline of over 1 GW wind, solar and energy storage projects that provide a solid foundation for the continued growth of the business. For more information about Leeward, visit www.lreus.com. Leeward is owned by OMERS Infrastructure, the infrastructure arm of one of Canada’s largest defined benefit pension plans.