Akaysha Energy, an energy storage project developer, secured A$650 million (~$440.92 million) in debt financing from a group of eleven domestic and foreign banks.
ANZ, CBA, and Westpac represented the domestic lenders. BNP, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, DBS, ING, Mizuho, Rabobank, Siemens Financial Services through Siemens Bank, and SMBC were some of the international lenders.
The facility has a three-year tenor and will be used to construct the Orana Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) project located near Wellington, NSW, within the Central West Orana Renewable Energy Zone (REZ), Australia. Once operational, the project will add more than 1,660 MWh of storage capacity to the National Electricity Market (NEM).
The financing also provides more than A$75 million (~$50.87 million) of Letters of Credit to support the project security obligations. In addition, EnergyAustralia, an Australia-based utility company, signed a twelve-year virtual toll offtake agreement for 200 MW of contracted capacity.
“We are very pleased to announce the successful closing of the debt financing of the Orana project as we move into construction on Akaysha’s first four-hour BESS to date. As the largest standalone BESS financing globally, this achievement not only secures the capital for Orana’s construction but also highlights the strong support we have received from both local and international banks, as well as from BlackRock,” said Andrew Wegman, Managing Director, and Chief Financial Officer at Akaysha Energy.
According to Mercom’s Q1 2024 Funding and M&A report for Storage and Smart Grid, energy storage project funding increased 65% year-over-year, coming in at $3.3 billion in nine deals in Q1 2024 compared to $2 billion raised in nine project funding announcements in Q1 2023.
Last month, Recurrent Energy, a solar and energy storage project developer and a wholly owned subsidiary of Canadian Solar secured $513 million in project financing for its 1,200 MWh Papago Storage project in Maricopa County, Arizona.
