Plus Power, a company that builds and runs BESS systems, has finished a US$1.8 billion financing round for five projects in Arizona and Texas. The round includes over US$400 million in tax equity and US$700 million for a single stand-alone project, making it the biggest to date.
There are building loans, term loans, and tax equity loans for five battery energy storage system (BESS) projects in Texas and Arizona, with a total of 1.04GW/2.76GWh of energy stored. The three projects in Texas last for two hours each, and the two projects in Arizona last for four hours each.
With US$707 million in funding, the 250MW/1,000MWh Sierra Estrella BESS project in Arizona, which began construction in April 2023, will be the biggest winner. Plus Power said that this is the biggest loan ever given for a single BESS project. It includes US$202 million in tax equity from Bank of America and US$505 million in building loans, a term loan, and a letter of credit.
By moving your mouse over the inner ring (project) and outer ring (financing type), you can see how the US$1.8 billion package is split between the projects and funding types shown below.
There is a US$196 million construction loan, term loan, and letter of credit line for the Arizona-based 90MW/360MWh Superstition project as part of the package. Both of the Arizona projects have had tolling agreements for 20 years with the local utility Salt River Project (SRP) for energy storage. They should be available by the second quarter of 2024.
The financing also includes US$884 million to help put three projects in the ERCOT, Texas market that add up to 700MW. These are the:
- 300MW/600MWh Rodeo Ranch Energy Storage project
- 200MW/400MWh Ebony Energy Storage project
- 200MW/400MWh Anemoi Energy Storage project
Foss & Company, a tax equity specialist financial company, gave Rodeo Ranch US$212 million in tax equity financing and US$276 million in construction and term financing. Ebony and Anemoi, on the other hand, only got construction and term financing.
Deutsche Bank, First Citizens Bank, and Siemens Financial Services were some of the banks that helped pay for the ERCOT projects. Nordic Bank, Société Générale, Mizuho, U.S. Bank, Bank of America, CoBank, and Siemens Financial Services all worked together to make the Arizona package.
As with most projects in the Texan grid operator’s market, the Ebony and Anemoi projects in ERCOT are intended to work as merchant resources in the wholesale market. However, Plus Power acted as a hedge for Goldman Sachs’ commodities group for a part of the Rodeo Ranch Energy Storage project.
When did Plus Power say that the ERCOT projects would be online? Its website says that Rodeo Ranch will be online before the end of 2023 and Ebony and Anemoi will be online in the spring of 2024.
Two projects, Sierra Estrella and Rodeo Ranch, will each get about $200 million in tax equity financing. These are some of the biggest announced for standalone BESS projects since the Inflation Reduction Act made them available for financing at the beginning of the year. Foss & Company and Bank of America, two of their service providers, recently promised to help with tax equity investments worth US$3 billion for energy storage and US$580 million for clean energy.
According to Josh Goldstein, CFO of Plus Power, the company has raised an unprecedented amount of money for stand-alone storage projects over the last year from a wide range of top energy project finance banks and investors.
We will use this money to help build out the US’s biggest and most varied portfolio of stand-alone storage projects. The size shows that we were the first to bring high-quality projects to market, and it also shows how hard our great team works.
Leave a Reply