Renewable energy developer and operator Arevon has completed the financing for a 600MWh solar and storage project in California, US, including US$191 million of tax credit investment provided using new transferability provisions.
The financing for the Vikings solar and storage project was completed using a combination of debt financing and tax credit transfer, which is possible under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Vikings pairs 157MW of solar PV and a 150MW/600MWh battery energy storage system (BESS), and construction will be completed by Q3 2024.
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Arevon secured a deal with JP Morgan to purchase US$191 million worth of investment tax credits (ITC) and production tax credits (PTC) in one of the first examples of credit transferability in the US.
“ITC and PTC tax credit transferability is a major step forward for the energy transition, post-IRA, and we are excited to be able to leverage it on the Vikings financing structure,” said Daniel Murphy, Arevon’s director of project finance.
Indeed, industry figures have said that the IRA transferability scheme could trigger a ‘great rethink’ of the US energy market as new players enter the space, as previously covered by our sister PV Tech (Premium access).
Guidance on transferability was issued in July, where the Treasury said that it would make it possible for smaller entities with lesser tax liability to benefit from the credits by transferring them to a profitable taxpayer, like JP Morgan in this case.
Last month, financing firm Evergrow claimed the first transferability transaction for a solar PV plant in Connecticut.
The remainder of the US$529 million financing came via a US$338 million debt facility from MUFG, BNP Paribas, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and First Citizens Bank.
Arevon’s financing is the first reported example of transferability being used for a solar or storage project of that scale that Energy-Storage.news is aware of.
See the full version of this article on our sister site PV Tech Power.