Developer Terra-Gen has closed on $969 million in project financing for the second phase of its Edwards Sanborn Solar-plus-Storage facility in California, which will bring its energy storage capacity to 3,291 MWh.
The $959 million financing includes $460 million in construction and term loan financing, $96 million in financing led by BNP Paribas, CoBank, ING and Nomura Securities, and $403 million in tax equity bridge financing provided by Bank of America.
The Edwards Sanborn Solar+Storage facility in Kern County will have a total of 755 MW of installed PV when it comes online in phases in the third and fourth quarters of 2022 and the third quarter of 2023, with the project combining two sources of stand-alone battery storage and battery storage charged from PV.
Phase I of the project went online late last year with 345MW of PV and 1,505MWh of storage already in operation, and Phase II will continue to add 410MW of PV and 1,786MWh of battery storage.
The PV system is expected to be fully online by the fourth quarter of 2022, and the battery storage will be fully operational by the third quarter of 2023.
Mortenson is the EPC contractor for the project, with First Solar supplying the PV modules and LG Chem, Samsung and BYD supplying the batteries.
For a project of this magnitude, the final size and capacity has changed several times since it was first announced, and with three phases now announced, the combined site will be even larger. Energy storage has also been scaled up several times and is growing further.
In December 2020, the project was first announced with plans for 1,118 MW of PV and 2,165 MWh of storage, and Terra-Gen says it is now moving forward with future phases of the project, which include continuing to add more than 2,000 MW of installed PV and energy storage. Future phases of the project will be financed in 2023 and are expected to begin coming online in 2024.
Jim Pagano, CEO of Terra-Gen, said, “Consistent with Phase I of the Edwards Sanborn project, Phase II continues to deploy an innovative offtake structure that has been well received in the financing market, which has allowed us to raise the necessary capital to move forward with this transformative project.”
The project’s offtakers include Starbucks and the Clean Power Alliance (CPA), and utility PG&E is also procuring a significant portion of the project’s power – 169MW/676MWh – through CAISO’s Resource Adequacy Framework, by which CAISO is ensuring that the utility has sufficient supply to meet demand (with reserve margins).
Post time: Sep-23-2022