Independent renewable energy provider Terra-Gen LLC has completed financing on the second phase of its Edwards Sanborn Solar Storage facility in Kern County, Calif.
This phase of the Edwards Sanborn Solar Storage facility is composed of 410 MW AC of nameplate solar capacity (358 MW AC at the point of interconnection) and 1,786 MWh of battery storage.
The first phase of the Edwards Sanborn project was financed in July 2021, and its 345 MW of solar and 1,505 MWh of storage are now fully operational.
The financing for the second phase 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 tax equity commitment for the project, with BNP Paribas, CoBank, ING and Nomura Securities leading the construction and term financing.
“Consistent with the first phase of the Edwards Sanborn project, the second phase deploys an innovate offtake structure that has been well received in the financing markets and allows us to raise the capital necessary to progress the construction of this transformative project,” says Jim Pagano, Terra-Gen’s CEO. “Once complete, Edwards Sanborn will play a significant role in helping California meet its carbon reduction goals and ensure electricity reliability through the use of stand-alone and collocated energy storage.”
Terra-Gen’s Edwards Sanborn project is located in Kern County 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 expects the solar portion of the second phase to come on-line in the third and fourth quarters of 2022 with the battery storage scheduled to be fully operational by the third quarter of 2023. Terra-Gen is advancing development on future phases of this project that will include over 2,000 MW of incremental solar and energy storage to be interconnected to the CAISO grid. Subsequent phases will begin to be financed in 2023 and begin to come on-line in 2024.
