Eolus, a renewable energy developer, signed an agreement to sell a 750 MW solar and battery storage project in Arizona, US. The project is Eolus’ third to be sold in the United States.
The buyer is a United States-based portfolio company backed by a large publicly traded global private equity investment firm. The project is a mid-stage development asset expected to have an initial aggregate capacity of 750 MWac solar photovoltaic generation and battery storage capacity. Commissioning is currently planned for 2025.
Eolus has received an initial payment of $12 million and will be paid additional purchase price installment payments depending upon the progress of the project and the fulfillment of certain milestones. A significant portion of the total consideration will be paid to Eolus upon the project’s construction. The total purchase price is estimated to be between $104 and $190 million at this stage and will be paid throughout 2023–2025. The buyer’s continued development and dimensioning of the project will influence the amounts of further payments to Eolus within the range mentioned above.
“We are delighted by this transaction and to continue our expansion in the US, where we have been active since 2015. More than a third of our total project portfolio is in the US, and we are well positioned to take part in the increase in renewable energy projects that we expect as a result of the new tax legislation that the US Congress passed during the summer,” said Per Witalisson, CEO of Eolus.
Recently, Lightsource bp, a solar project developer, closed R$800 million (~$148.7 million) financing for its 210 MW of Milagres Solar project in Brazil. Banco do Brasil provided R$423 million (~$78.6 million) in debt financing through the Northeast Development Fund (Fundo de Desenvolvimento do Nordeste, or FDNE), which is managed by the Brazilian governmental agency Superintendência de Desenvolvimento do Nordeste (Sudene).
According to Mercom’s recently released 9M and Q3 2022 Solar Funding and M&A Report, announced large-scale project funding in the first nine months of 2022 came to $22.8 billion in 128 project funding deals compared to $11.6 billion in 138 projects in 9M 2021.
