by Shane Henson — January 21, 2013—The U.S. Air Force’s Joint Military Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, located in Burlington County, New Jersey, is on track toward becoming one of the largest military community-based solar installations in the nation, and helping the U.S. Department of Defense meet its goal of obtaining 25 percent of its energy requirements from independent renewable energy sources by 2025, says the base.
Green Capital Management and CIT Group Inc. recently announced the closing of $35 million of financing and commencement of construction for the 12.3-megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic energy installation at the military base.
The installation is a portfolio company of True Green Capital Management, a New York-based private investment firm specializing in asset-based investments in distributed renewable power. In addition to equity contributed by True Green Capital Management, CIT Energy served as sole lead arranger in a $24 million senior-secured credit facility provided by CIT Bank, the U.S. commercial bank subsidiary of CIT Group Inc.
As use of proceeds for the equity and debt financing, True Green Capital Management and CIT partnered with the U.S. Air Force, solar installer Trinity Solar and host United Communities, the privatized military housing community at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, to develop the solar installation.
The U.S. Air Force granted its support and consent for the solar power plant to provide electricity at a reduced rate for a period of 20 years to the privatized military family housing community at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, the U.S. military’s only tri-service installation, consisting of McGuire Air Force Base, Fort Dix and neighboring Naval Air Station Lakehurst, says True Green Capital Management.
The project under construction currently employs more than 120 engineering, electrical, installation and maintenance workers, and upon completion, scheduled for the second half of 2013, will generate an estimated 13.7 million kilowatt hours of renewable electric power annually. According the Environmental Protection Agency, this annual level of clean, sustainable power production offsets in excess of one million gallons of gasoline or approximately 22 million barrels of foreign crude oil each year.
