Enlight Renewable Energy, a utility-scale solar, wind, and energy storage project developer, announced the financial close for the energy storage portion of its Atrisco Solar and Energy Storage project. The project, which has a solar generation capacity of 364 MW coupled with 1.2 GWh of energy storage capacity, is located outside Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Clenera Holdings, a subsidiary of Enlight, entered into a $401 million loan agreement with a consortium of eight banks led by HSBC for the construction of the Atrisco Energy Storage Project. Upon the project’s commercial operation date, the loan will convert into a $185 million term loan from the same group of lenders and a $222 million tax equity financing provided by U.S. Bancorp Impact Finance.
The company closed the financing for the solar portion in December 2023. The project is expected to reach full commercial operations by 2024.
Bank of America provided tax equity. Tesla is providing the project with battery energy storage technology. RES, an EPC contractor in the U.S., led the project’s construction.
Gilad Yavetz, CEO of Enlight, commented: “The Atrisco complex is Enlight’s flagship project in the United States, and today’s financial close is another important step in completing this project. We look forward to the phased COD of Atrisco, which is expected to begin this quarter, in which years of effort will finally come to fruition. Enlight is embarking on an ambitious and rapid growth plan in the U.S., which is set to become a major market for us in the coming years, complementing the large and growing capacity footprint we have built up in MENA and Europe. Atrisco represents another step of this major expansion.”
According to Mercom’s 1H and Q2 2024 Funding and M&A report for Storage and Grid, 1H 2024 saw $5 billion in announced project funding from 21 deals, representing a 22% increase year-over-year compared to the $4.1 billion raised in 17 deals in 1H 2023.
Earlier this month, Intersect Power, a utility-scale solar project developer, closed two transactions representing $837 million in financing commitments for constructing and operating three standalone Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) in Texas.
