Clearway Energy Group, a developer and operator of clean energy projects, announced the financial closure of the 300 MW Pine Forest solar and 200 MW Pine Forest standalone storage projects in Hopkins County, Texas, which are now under construction.
A consortium of lenders comprising Société Générale, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (New York Branch), Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (New York Branch), Commerzbank (New York Branch), KeyBanc Capital Markets, and Lloyds Bank provided the funding for the $665 million projects.
Dell Technologies has signed a long-term virtual power purchase agreement for clean electricity produced from the solar project to support its climate goals.
“Our Pine Forest projects represent a major investment in grid reliability in Texas,” said Brooks Friedeman, Vice President of Capital Markets at Clearway. “We value the financial support that our consortium of banks has provided to start construction of the Pine Forest projects.”
In August, Clearway Energy Group also closed $550 million in financing for developing its Rosamond South I solar and storage project in Kern County, California. Upon completion, the solar portion will have a total capacity of 140 MW and the storage capacity will be 118 MW.
According to Mercom’s 1H and Q2 2024 Solar Funding and M&A report, large-scale solar project funding in 1H 2024 came to $19.9 billion in 117 deals compared to $14.9 billion in 113 deals in 1H 2023.
In September, ZE Energy, a France-based solar and energy storage project developer, closed an assetco financing to construct a utility-scale 77 MWp solar project coupled with a 14.8 MW/33.5 MWh lithium-ion battery storage project in Vert, Landes, France.
