Equis Australia (Equis), a battery storage project developer, announced the closing of an AUD 260 million (~$163 million) non-recourse senior debt funding package for the 250 MW/500 MWh Calala Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) located in Tamworth, New South Wales, Australia. Westpac, Societe Generale, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. provided the financing.
The company also announced that construction of the project has begun, with commercial operation expected by 2027.
The Calala BESS is structured as two independent projects at 100 MW and 150 MW, each with two hours of storage capacity.
The 100 MW/200 MWh portion has a long-term offtake agreement with Smartest Energy for 100% of its capacity. The 150 MW/300 MWh portion will be a merchant battery energy storage system utilizing Autobidder, Tesla’s real-time trading and control platform. The Autobidder agreement will include a revenue share and a minimum revenue guarantee.
“Calala BESS has contracted Tesla to provide 138 Tesla Megapacks, Consolidated Power Projects (CPP) to deliver the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) of the balance of plant and Transgrid to complete the connection into the Tamworth Substation. We’re proud to be delivering the project in partnership with experienced and highly regarded counterparties, each with a proven track record of delivering complex infrastructure projects on time and within budget across Australia,” noted Mahesh Reddy, managing director and head of Equis Australia.
According to Mercom’s Annual and Q4 2024 Funding and M&A Report for Energy Storage and Smart Grid, announced energy storage project funding in 2024 increased 53% year-over-year.
This month, Recurrent Energy, a solar and energy storage project developer and a wholly owned subsidiary of Canadian Solar announced the closing of $183 million in project and tax equity financing for its 200 MWh Fort Duncan storage project in Maverick County, Texas.
