Greenbacker Capital has lined up $437.2 million to repower three wind farms in Iowa and Minnesota that add up to 110 MW. That is close to $4 million for every megawatt on sites that were already wind farms. Yet most of the money is not a loan, and the farms were already turning when it was announced.
Key takeaways
- Greenbacker Capital secured a financing package of about $437.2 million, announced on 24 April 2024, to repower three wind farms in the US Midwest.
- The Greenbacker package combines $355.7 million of tax equity from Huntington National Bank with $81.5 million of bridge financing from Bayerische Landesbank.
- The repowered Greenbacker assets are the 38 MW Hawkeye and 42 MW Elk wind farms in Iowa and the 30 MW Community Wind South project in Minnesota, 110 MW in total.
- The Greenbacker repowers qualify for the 30 percent investment tax credit and the additional 10 percent domestic content bonus created by the Inflation Reduction Act, using US-manufactured turbine components.
- Enerdatics records 13 US wind financings announced in 2024, and the Greenbacker package is the only one with a disclosed tax equity amount.
What does a full repower actually replace?
It replaces almost everything that moves. A repower swaps old turbines for new equipment on a site that already has land rights, a grid connection and a wind record. Greenbacker's version is the heavy kind. Leap describes full equipment replacement at all three sites, not a partial refit of blades or gearboxes.
That matters for the money. A partial refit extends the life of existing kit. A full replacement is close to building a new wind farm on an old footprint, and the cost follows. Spread across 110 MW, the package works out at about $3.97 million per MW.
The work was done by the time the money was announced. Leap records commercial operation at the three farms between December 2023 and March 2024, and classifies the assets as operational. Bedrock Renewables led development of the repowers and supported the financings on Greenbacker's behalf.
Why is the package mostly tax equity rather than debt?
Because the tax credit is the biggest single source of value in the project. Tax equity is an investment from a party, usually a bank, that can use a project's tax credits against its own tax bill. In return it takes a share of the project's benefits until it reaches an agreed return.
An investment tax credit is calculated as a percentage of eligible capital spending and is earned when the project is placed in service. Greenbacker's farms qualify at 30 percent, plus a further 10 percent because the equipment uses US-made components. On a full equipment replacement, 40 percent of eligible cost is a large number, and it arrives at once rather than over ten years.
That explains the shape of the package. Huntington's $355.7 million is about 81 percent of the total, or roughly $3.23 million per MW. Bayerische Landesbank's $81.5 million is the smaller piece. A bridge loan is short-term funding that is repaid from a later, committed source of cash, and here it sits alongside the tax equity rather than in place of it.
How does this compare with other US wind tax equity?
It sits far above the nearest comparable. In December 2023 Northland Power raised $190 million of tax equity from J.P. Morgan for the 112 MW Bluestone and 108 MW Ball Hill wind farms in New York. That is about $0.86 million per MW, roughly a quarter of Greenbacker's figure.
The two deals are not like for like. Northland's farms were new builds under construction, and Leap does not record which credit they claimed. The gap still shows how much a 40 percent upfront credit on a full re-equipping can lift the tax equity a single megawatt supports.
Repowering debt tells a different story. Also in December 2023, Clearway Energy raised $254 million of non-recourse debt to repower the 150 MW Cedro Hill wind farm in Texas. That package included construction loans, a tax equity bridge loan and a sponsor equity bridge loan, and comes to about $1.69 million per MW. Cedro Hill was financed with debt that would later be taken out. Greenbacker's farms were financed largely with the tax equity itself.
Enerdatics' data shows 13 US wind financings announced in 2024 with a combined value of about $5.27 billion. Five are debt worth $3.54 billion, three are bonds and three are hybrid packages. Greenbacker's $437.2 million is the only hybrid with a disclosed amount, and no 2024 US wind record is classified as standalone tax equity. The Greenbacker package is the one place in the 2024 wind data where a tax equity figure can be read directly.
What does the deal signal for US wind repowering?
It signals that older wind farms have become a tax credit play as much as an engineering one. The sites already have what a developer spends years securing: land, permits and a connection to the grid. Replacing the equipment resets the clock on the asset and, under the Inflation Reduction Act, resets the credit too.
That is a pattern other owners are already working. ENGIE raised more than $1 billion of tax equity on farms already running, and buyers of older fleets are pricing in planned turbine replacement, as with the Pennsylvania wind farms Exus bought ahead of a repower.
The domestic content bonus adds a second layer. The extra 10 percentage points reward owners who source turbine components in the US. For a repower, where equipment is most of the cost, that bonus moves the economics more than it would on a project where land and grid work take a larger share.
The open question is scale. Greenbacker's three farms are small, between 30 MW and 42 MW each. Whether the same structure works for a large fleet depends on how many tax equity investors want exposure to repowered assets, and on how much US-made equipment is available to qualify for the bonus.
Frequently asked questions
How much did Greenbacker raise to repower its US wind farms? Greenbacker Capital secured about $437.2 million, made up of $355.7 million of tax equity from Huntington National Bank and $81.5 million of bridge financing from Bayerische Landesbank, announced on 24 April 2024.
Which wind farms does the Greenbacker financing cover? It covers the 38 MW Hawkeye and 42 MW Elk wind farms in Iowa and the 30 MW Community Wind South project in Minnesota, which together total 110 MW and returned to commercial operation between December 2023 and March 2024.
Why do the Greenbacker repowers attract so much tax equity? The projects qualify for the 30 percent investment tax credit plus a 10 percent domestic content bonus on a full equipment replacement, which makes the tax credit the largest single source of value and supports about $3.23 million of tax equity per MW.
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