US$1.9 billion financing secured for ‘milestone’ Nevada solar-plus-storage project

LinkedIn
Twitter
Reddit
Facebook
Email

Debt and equity financing worth US$1.9 billion has been closed for Gemini, one of the US’ largest single-site solar-plus-storage power plants to date.

Investment manager Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners and project developer Primergy said yesterday that the deal has been clinched for Gemini, which combines 690MWac/966MWdc of solar PV with 380MW/1,416MWh of battery storage, set for construction in Clark County, Nevada.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Enjoy 12 months of exclusive analysis

  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Annual digital subscription to the PV Tech Power journal
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

Scheduled to go into operation in late 2023, power from the plant will be sold to Nevada utility NV Energy under a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) contract.

It extends an existing partnership between Primergy and the Berkshire Hathaway-owned utility, with the pair having contracted for 1.3GWac of solar and 3.33GWh of battery storage to date.

In early March, Primergy – which is owned by Quinbrook – announced the appointment of key contractors, including EPC Kiewit Power Constructors and battery energy storage system (BESS) integrator IHI Terrasun, as reported by Energy-Storage.news.

Gemini’s bifacial PV modules will be supplied by Maxeon.

The project’s BESS will be DC-coupled and charge only from the onsite solar PV, IHI Terrasun’s president Jamal Burki told Energy-Storage.news in an interview.

Describing the Gemini project as a “real milestone” for the industry in terms of its scale, Burki said the power plant will enable “continued renewable energy usage” for NV Energy, beyond the hours in which solar is generating during the day.

“This is a four-hour [duration] system, and really a solar shifting application for the evening. The solar system is being oversized so all that ‘clipped’ energy is stored in the energy storage system and will now broaden that solar energy availability into the evening hours, by four hours,” Burki said.

The financing deal just closed includes US$1.3 billion in debt financing, from a combination of a construction/term loan, tax equity bridge loan and letter of credit facility.

Lead arrangers on the construction facility are KeyBanc Capital Markets, MUFG, Bank of America and Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale, while the debt deal also covers a US$95 million mezzanine debt facility from Voya Investment Management.

US$532 million of tax equity financing has also been secured from Truist Bank and Bank of America.

The US’ largest solar-charged battery storage system already in operation is utility Florida Light + Power’s 900MWh Manatee project, while in California developer Terra-Gen is building Edwards Sanborn, which has a planned final capacity of 760MW of PV and 2,445MWh battery storage, albeit that project is being built up in phases, with multiple off-taker contracts.

Supply chain challenges unlikely to impact project

Quinbrook managing partner David Scaysbrook said that many challenges had been “overcome along the way,” in getting the project to this stage.

“Once operational, Gemini will showcase the many benefits of pairing large scale solar power with storage and will guide the way for many similar projects to come from the Primergy team,” Scaysbrook said.

With suppliers and contractors now secured as well as financing, construction is now ready to begin on the “unprecedented” project, Primergy CEO Ty Daul said.

One of the major challenges facing the energy storage industry is the battery supply chain, which has seen bottlenecks and delays, as demand far outstrips supply. IHI Terrasun’s Jamal Burki told Energy-Storage.news that to his knowledge, Primergy was able to lock in contracts with its suppliers early enough to not be expecting any substantive impacts from that market dynamic.

The fact that there are a number of financiers (“almost a consortium”) on the project has derisked it somewhat from a financial perspective too, Burki said. It is worth noting that in 2019 as the PPA with NV Energy was announced, Primergy said Gemini was expected to cost about US$1 billion but would be worth US$2 billion in PPA revenues over the 25-year term. Additionally, as it revealed the contractors in March, the project’s cost was quoted at around US$1.2 billion by the developer.

17 June 2025
Napa, USA
PV Tech has been running PV ModuleTech Conferences since 2017. PV ModuleTech USA, on 17-18 June 2025, will be our fourth PV ModulelTech conference dedicated to the U.S. utility scale solar sector. The event will gather the key stakeholders from solar developers, solar asset owners and investors, PV manufacturing, policy-making and and all interested downstream channels and third-party entities. The goal is simple: to map out the PV module supply channels to the U.S. out to 2026 and beyond.
1 July 2025
London, UK
UK Solar Summit 2025 will look at the role solar currently plays in the energy mix, how this will change over the coming years and how this aligns with net-zero and other government targets. We will break down all these challenges and help build up solutions through discursive panels, motivational keynotes and case studies, with newly added interactive sessions to get you moving and meeting your peers, making the connections you need to boost your business.

Read Next

Premium
December 4, 2024
Dallas, Texas-based independent power producer (IPP) Stellar Renewable Power has secured a Special Use Permit (SUP) to construct and operate a 1GW/4GWh BESS project co-located with a 1GW solar farm in Navajo County, Arizona.
December 4, 2024
Western Australia’s GreenTech Hub, dedicated to supporting emerging green technologies, will explore advanced energy storage systems as its first challenge.
December 3, 2024
Energy-Storage.news proudly presents our sponsored webinar with Greensolver, on the role of asset management for battery energy storage systems (BESS) in Europe.
November 29, 2024
SolarEdge interim CEO Ronen Faier has spoken about the closure of the company’s utility-scale battery storage manufacturing business.
November 29, 2024
Developer Squadron Energy is seeking to build an 8-hour duration 1,200MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in New South Wales, Australia, co-located with a 300MW wind project.

Most Popular

Email Newsletter