Developer and operator EsVolta has secured a US$185 million senior secured credit facility for its US battery energy storage system (BESS) project pipeline.
The new funds will allow EsVolta to secure obligations relating to interconnection, power purchase agreements (PPAs), equipment deposits as well as early pre-NTP (notice-to-proceed) construction funding for its BESS pipeline, which it claims is over 20GWh.
Financial holding company Nomura was the sole lead arranger, bookrunner and administrative agent for the facility, with participation from peers Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and Voya.
It follows EsVolta beginning construction on three BESS projects in Texas totalling 490MW/980MWh in February 2024: the 240MW/480MWh Anole project, the 150MW/300MWh Desert Willow project and the 100MW/200MWh Burksol project.
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The first two are near Dallas while Burksol is in Dickens County, northwest Texas, and all three projects have hedge contracts in place. Of EsVolta’s 20GWh pipeline, 1.5GW is in operation or in-construction, it said in February.
In November 2023, it secured tax equity financing for its 30MW/60MWh Santa Paula BESS project in California, as reported by Energy-Storage.news.
EsVolta is owned by Generate Capital following an acquisition in 2022. It was originally formed through the acquisition of the development assets of Powin Energy, when the latter transitioned to become an energy storage technology provider only.
“We are delighted to have led this strategic pre-NTP financing for esVolta as they are one of the first movers in the US battery storage space,” said Alain Halimi, Managing Director, Nomura’s IPB.
The Texas market, operated by ERCOT, and California, operated by CAISO, are the two largest by BESS deployments in the US with around 7-8GW online, each.
