Enlight secures US$550 million financing for solar-plus-storage project in Arizona
Summary
Enlight, through its subsidiary Clnera Holdings, entered into a loan agreement for the Roadrunner financing with a consortium of global banks, including BNP Paribas Securities Corp, Cr\xe9dit Agricole, Natixis CIB, and Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale.The financing totals US$550 million, which is expected to convert into a US$290 million term loan and US$320 million of tax equity funding on the projects commercial operation date (COD). US investment bank Paragon Energy Capital served as Clneras financial advisor on the transaction.Expected to reach COD by the end of 2025, all procurement contracts have been signed and construction has begun on Roadrunner. The project has a 20-year busbar power purchase agreement (PPA) with utility Arizona Electric Power Cooperative (AEPCO).In a busbar PPA, the buyer, AEPCO in this case, is responsible for transmitting the energy from the seller, Enlight. The IPP expects Roadrunner to generate revenues of US$51-54 million and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) of US$41-44 million in its first full year of operation.Enlight also has a busbar PPA for the previously mentioned Atrisco project with investor-owned-utility (IOU) the Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM).AEPCO, meanwhile, received board approval to deploy the solar-plus-storage project with Enlight in October 2023.Enlight has announced its following projects, located in Arizona, the 600MW/1,900MWh Snowflake project and the 1,211MW/824MWh CO Bar project. These projects are part of the companys Connect and Expand strategy, which aims to leverage existing interconnect infrastructure with additional generation capacity.Enlight and Clnera are also constructing two other solar and storage projects in the US: the 392MWdc/688MWh Country Acres in California and the 128MWdc/400MWh Quail Ranch in New Mexico.Clneras affiliate, Country Acres Clean Power, entered into a busbar PPA with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) in November 2023 for the Country Acres project.In June, system integrator Stem Inc and developer Prometheus Power deployed the first of three BESS projects in Arizona for AEPCO.