Arevon Energy and Blackstone Credit & Insurance have announced the financial close for the 200 MW Condor Energy Storage Project, currently under construction in Grand Terrace, Calif.
The project is anticipated to start operations this year and is contracted under a 15-year agreement with Southern California Edison. Condor features Megapack 2 XL, Tesla’s utility-scale battery system. Tesla has been contracted to provide O&M services for the project. Rosendin Electric is the project’s EPC contractor. Arevon says it will own and operate the project on a long-term basis.
Blackstone’s preferred equity investment in Condor is structured to simplify the monetization of tax credits.
The financing includes a commitment from Stifel Financial to buy investment tax credits and is supported with a $164 million debt facility secured with coordinating lead arrangers CoBank ACB, Helaba and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking. The Bank of New York Mellon served as collateral and administrative agent. Arevon secured real estate financing from climate investment firm HASI related to the Condor Energy Storage Project land.
“Condor represents not only our commitment to developing assets that deliver grid resilience but also our team’s adeptness in navigating complex, hybrid financing arrangements,” says Arevon’s Daniel Murphy. “Along with our partners, we remain focused on pioneering climate finance solutions that promote a sustainable clean energy future.”
Stoel Rives represented Arevon as sponsor transaction counsel and CRC-IB served as sponsor tax equity advisors. Milbank served as the preferred equity counsel and Winston & Strawn served as lender counsel. Monarch Private Capital served as advisor to the tax credit purchaser, with Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe as counsel to Monarch. Paul Hastings served as counsel to the tax credit purchaser.
