US renewable energy developer, Longroad Energy, announced financial close of 111MWdc solar and 85MWac/340MWh storage project Sun Pond in Maricopa County, Arizona, 4 December.
The project is expected to be operational by mid-2026, when the output will be purchased by the city of San Jose, California and Ava Community Energy, a utility servicing Alameda County, California, via long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs).
Subsidiary of US Bank focusing on tax credit investments and syndications, US Bancorp Impact Finance is the project’s tax equity investor, also leading debt financing for the project, joined by German Commerzbank and Canadian bank CIBC acting as joint lead arranger and green loan coordinator.
US Bancorp Impact Finance recently closed a tax equity commitment with Fengate Asset Management and developer Alpha Omega Power (AOP) for a 400MWh BESS in California.
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American construction company McCarthy Building Companies (McCarthy) will act as the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor on the Sun Pond project.
The Sun Pond 85MWac/340MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) will be provided by US energy storage provider Fluence and include power conversion systems (PCS) from US inverter manufacturer EPC Power.
Chinese PV company and inverter supplier Sungrow will be supplying the project’s solar inverters.
BESS cells will be provided by Japan-headquartered lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery manufacturer Automotive Energy Supply Corporation (AESC).
BESS integrator Fluence, the company that recently secured US-manufactured cells from AESC, will work with Longroad and American operations and maintenance firm NovaSource Power Services to provide operations and maintenance (O&M) services for the Sun Pond project.
NovaSource is the provider of O&M services for the Powin-provided BESS on Longroad’s Sun Streams 3, a solar-plus-storage project with 215MWdc solar PV and 215MW/860MWh of battery storage, also located in Arizona’s Maricopa County.
John Zahurancik, President of Fluence Americas, said that the Sun Pond project will use Fluence’s advanced asset management analytics tool, the AI-based Nispera APM software. The company claims that users of the software could see annual profitability lift of 3-10%.
Sun Pond is the fifth Longroad financed project in four years to utilise First Solar’s thin-film Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) photovoltaic (PV) solar technology.
The solar-plus-storage project also joins Longroad’s Sun Streams Complex, made up of three additional Longroad projects, bringing the total for the complex to 973MWdc of solar and 600MWac/2,400MWh of storage.
| Sun Streams Complex Project | MWdc, MWac/MWh |
| Sun Streams 2 – Operational mid 2021 | 200MWdc solar |
| Sun Streams 3 – Operational mid-2024 | 285MWdc solar, 215MWac/860MWh storage |
| Sun Streams 4 – Expected mid-2025 | 377MWdc solar, 300MWac/1200MWh storage |
| Sun Pond – Expected mid-2026 | 111MWdc solar, 85MWac/340MWh storage |
In March, Longroad closed on Serrano, a large-scale solar PV and battery storage project in Pinal and Pima Counties, Arizona, with PV modules developed by First Solar.
Prior to closing on Serrano, Longroad closed on Sun Streams 4, the company’s largest solar and storage project to date, at 377MWdc PV and 300MWac/1200MWh, part of a portfolio it acquired from First Solar.
