Developers Spearmint Energy, On.Energy, Nexus Renewables and Granite Source Power have collectively secured US$300 million for US battery storage projects, the bulk by Spearmint.
Spearmint Energy secures US$200 million facility
Spearmint yesterday (12 June) announced the close of a US$200 million credit facility with Aiga Capital Partners, which will support the development of its 1.2GW/2.4GWh battery storage pipeline in the ERCOT, Texas market.
The pipeline includes three 300MW projects in Cooke, Galveston, and Brazoria, the ‘Nomadic’ portfolio acquired in March this year, and another 150MW/300MWh project, Revolution, acquired late last year. Revolution is set to come online in 2023 while the Nomadic portfolio has commercial operation dates (COD) in 2025.
Javelin Capital and Paul Hastings LLP provided financial advisory and legal counsel services respectively to Spearmint while Holland and Knight served as legal counsel for Aiga.
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Andrew Waranch, CEO of Spearmint who has previously guest blogged for Energy-Storage.news, said: “This facility will enable Spearmint to accelerate the construction of our projects currently under development, capitalise on our strong pipeline of development opportunities, and reliably deliver renewable energy to the grid for years to come.”
On.Energy raises US$20 million in Series B
Meanwhile, pan-American battery storage system integrator and IPP On.Energy today announced a US$20 million Series B led by Ultra Capital and participated in by Phalanx Investment Partners.
A significant allocation of the funds will go towards the development, construction and operation of its 300MWh ERCOT pipeline comprising 10MW/20MWh projects. CEO Alan Cooper recently talked to Energy-Storage.news about the firm’s pivot to focusing on the US market.
A spokesperson said the ERCOT projects would be in the Houston/Dallas Corridor, use LFP battery cells and the first 100MWh would come online in mid-2024.
Two other US developers announced smaller financing deals for their respective battery storage pipelines on Monday too, one of which also involved Aiga.
Nexus Renewables closes US$40 million financing deals
Nexux Renewables has closed a total of US$40 million in financing through four separate deals for a 10MW/40MWh battery storage in California and to advance the development of the rest of its pipeline, including a 300MW/600MWh system in Texas.
The financing is comprised of a US$13.3 million senior secured loan led by Aiga Capital Partners, a US$14.5 million project-level financing led by Synovus Bank, and a US$3.7 million commitment for privately-placed preferred shares and US$10.8 million tax equity commitment, both led by Greenprint Capital.
The tax equity commitment from Greenprint will take advantage of the new standalone investment tax credit (ITC) for standalone energy storage. While the long-awaited guidance on the domestic content 10% adder to the ITC was recently released, the industry is still awaiting more details on how the ITC can be transferred between investors in a secondary market (so-called ‘transferability).
It is part of Nexus’ pivot from a pure-play renewables developer to an independent power producer (IPP). Nexus secured a US$100 million partnership with vertically-integrated distributed energy platform company Scale Microgrid Solutions (SMS) last year, covered by Energy-Storage.news at the time.
Granite Source Power bags US$40 million equity capital
The third of the three US developers to secure capital for battery storage projects on Monday was Granite Source Power (GSP). The New Hampshire-based developer announced an equity partnership with New Energy Capital (NEC), totalling US$40 million in capital, to fund further renewable and battery storage developments by GSP.
Few details were given on what projects the growth capital would go towards in the short-term. The announcement said GSP has a 3GW greenfield development pipeline and is currently marketing a 2GW standalone battery storage portfolio.
