Summit Ridge Energy, a community solar project owner and operator, and HASI, an investor in climate solutions, closed a $309 million back-leveraged term loan on a portfolio of 80 operating community solar projects. Summit Ridge Capital Holdings, a joint venture between Summit Ridge Energy and HASI, owns the projects.
A consortium of lenders provided the loan, including Bank of America, Nomura Securities International, Prudential Private Capital, and MetLife Investment Management.
Bank of America acted as the sole Structuring and Placement Agent and Joint Lead Arranger, while Nomura acted as the Joint Lead Arranger.
The portfolio, built by Summit Ridge over the last five years, includes ground-mount and rooftop community solar projects with a total capacity of 216 MW.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Bank of America, Nomura Securities International, Prudential Private Capital, and MetLife Investment Management to close this significant investment, which demonstrates the appetite for community solar as an asset class within the capital markets,” said Adam Kuehne, Chief Investment Officer at Summit Ridge Energy.
Last year, Summit Ridge Energy secured $275 million from the global financial services company Mitsubishi and United Financial of Japan Group. The capital expands their existing partnership and will be used for project construction and term debt financing.
According to Mercom’s 1H and Q2 2024 Solar Funding and M&A report, large-scale 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 July, Enfinity Global, a U.S.-based renewable energy project developer, closed $164 million (~JPY 26.24 billion) in financing for a 250 MW solar PV project portfolio in Japan. The portfolio comprises seven operating utility-scale solar projects and one project under construction with an enterprise value of over $1 billion. The projects are expected to produce more than 300 GWh of clean electricity annually.
