Competitive Power Ventures, General Electric, and Osaka Gas broke ground October 24 near Johnstown, Penn., for a $700 million, 1,050-megawatt natural gas and ethane-fueled combined-cycle electric generating station. The facility is expected to enter service in early 2020.

The Fairview Energy Center will use GE's 7HA.02 gas turbines, a steam turbine, generators and additional controls equipment. The HA is capable of delivering full power to the grid in under 30 minutes. CPV Fairview will be fueled by a mix of natural gas and ethane.

Competitive Power Ventures logo.Its development cost is equal to around $666 a kilowatt. Japan-based Osaka Gas will hold a 50% interest in the facility.

CPV, GE, and Osaka Gas first announced the project in March 2017 as co-developers. Once operational, the CPV Fairview Energy Center will require about two dozen employees that the developers say will represent a total of $3-4 million in annual salaries and benefits.

The $700 million three-tranche debt financing for the project received support from 16 international lenders. The initial Coordinating Lead Arrangers in the variable rate tranche include Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, MUFG, BNP Paribas, CIT Bank, N.A., National Australia Bank Limited, and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited, New York Branch, with Commonwealth Bank of Australia and DNB Markets, Inc., joining the Coordinating Lead Arranger rank. The Coordinating Lead Arranger for the funding sourced from Korea is Industrial Bank of Korea. The credit facilities will provide for construction, term, letters of credit, and working capital financing needs of the project.

Based in Silver Spring, MD, CPV has developed or monetized 21 projects totaling 13 gigawatts (GW) of natural gas-fired and renewable generation assets.

In March, Osaka Gas agreed with Competitive Power Ventures to acquire an equity interest in two power generation plants: the Fairview station and the Shore Power Plant. Shore Power Plant, with an installed capacity of 725 MW, has been in operation since January 2016 in New Jersey. Osaka holds a 20% stake in that plant.

The U.S. Osaka Gas portfolio includes around 1 GW of generating assets. The company plans to deploy $5 billion by 2030 in energy assets internationally.