Terra-Gen said it completed financing for the second phase of its Edwards Sanborn Solar Storage facility in Kern County, Calif.
This project phase includes 410 MWac of nameplate solar capacity (358 MWac at the point of interconnection) and 1,786 MWh of battery storage. The first phase was financed in July 2021 and its 345 MW of PV and 1,505 MWh of storage are now in service.
Second phase financing includes $959 million senior secured credit facilities comprising a $460 million construction and term loan facility, a $403 million tax equity bridge facility, and a $96 million construction and revolving letter of credit facility.
U.S. Bank is providing the project’s tax equity commitment, with BNP Paribas, CoBank, ING, and Nomura Securities leading the construction and term financing.
The Edwards Sanborn project is on land leased from Edwards Air Force Base as well as on adjacent private land. Mortenson is the full engineering, procurement and construction contractor on both the solar and energy storage scopes with First Solar supplying the solar modules and LG Chem, Samsung and BYD supplying the batteries.
Terra-Gen said it expects the solar portion of the second phase to come on line in the third and fourth quarters of 2022. The battery storage is slated to be fully operational by the third quarter of 2023.
The company said it is advancing development on future phases that are expected to include more than 2,000 MW of incremental solar and energy storage to be interconnected to the CAISO grid.
Those phases are on track to begin to be financed in 2023 and enter service starting in 2024.
Terra-Gen owns around 3.3 GW and 3,800 MWh of wind, solar and energy storage capacity in operation and construction across 28 renewable power facilities in the United States. The company was formed in 2007 and is owned by ECP, an infrastructure investor, and Igneo Infrastructure Partners, a global investment manager.
