IPP Enlight Renewable Energy has announced financing for the 290MWdc/940MWh solar-plus-storage Roadrunner project near Tucson, Arizona.
Also known as Apache Solar II, Roadrunner is Enlight’s second-largest project, the largest being the recently completed 364MWdc/1,200MWh Atrisco project in New Mexico, US.
Enlight, through its subsidiary Clēnera Holdings, entered into a loan agreement for the Roadrunner financing with a consortium of global banks, including BNP Paribas Securities Corp, Crédit 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 project’s commercial operation date (COD). The term loan is structured with an amortisation tenor of 20-25 years, to be repaid five years from the project’s COD. US investment bank Paragon Energy Capital served as Clēnera’s financial advisor on the transaction.
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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).
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 company’s “Connect and Expand” strategy, which aims to leverage existing interconnect infrastructure with additional generation capacity.
Enlight and Clēnera 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.
Clēnera’s 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.
