Scale Microgrids, a commercial-scale distributed energy developer, closed a tax equity transaction with Truist Bank of up to $150 million.
The company designs, builds, owns, and operates distributed energy assets. Scale Microgrids also finances project developers and helps large energy consumers manage their energy supply with microgrids integrating solar, batteries, and other on-site energy sources.
The tax equity facility will allow Scale to finance the construction of microgrid projects for commercial and industrial customers in various industries and community-scale solar and battery storage facilities. These projects will be built over the next 18 months across multiple states, including California, Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania.
“We’re very excited to work with Truist to finance such a diverse portfolio of distributed energy assets with our largest institutional tax equity investment to date. This partnership will enable us to efficiently finance our microgrid and community scale projects to meet the increasing power demands of our customers in this new era of load growth and grid constraints,” said Julian Torres, Chief Investment Officer at Scale.
The recent investment adds to Scale’s capital resources, building on previous partnerships with institutional investors, including a $300 million equity investment from Warburg Pincus and a project finance debt facility of up to $225 million received from KeyBanc Capital Markets and City National Bank.
In January, the company agreed with Gutami to acquire 500 MW of distributed solar and storage projects. The projects are in multiple states, including California and New York.
According to Mercom’s 9M and Q3 2024 Funding and M&A report for Energy Storage and Smart Grid, announced debt and public market financing for Smart Grid technology companies totaled $568 million in 10 deals in 9M 2024 compared to $1.7 billion in 11 deals in 9M 2023.