Renewables developer rPlus Energies has secured more than US$1 billion for a 400MW solar-plus-storage project In Utah, US.
Located in Emery County, the Green River Energy Center project consists of 400MW solar PV generation with a 400MW/1,600MWh battery energy storage system (BESS). It has a power purchase agreement (PPA) in place with US utility PacifiCorp. Both companies signed the PPA in October 2022.
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The company obtained the construction debt financing for its project subsidiary from five financial institutions, including Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, KeyBanc Capital Markets, MUFG Bank, Truist Securities and Wells Fargo Securities.
Luigi Resta, president and CEO of rPlus Energies, said that the Green River Energy Centre was rPlus Energies’ debut as an independent power producer (IPP).
The company described the Green River Energy Centre as one of the largest planned solar-plus-storage facilities in Utah. Engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services of the project will be provided by Sundt Renewables.
In March 2024, rPlus Energies announced that it had amended the PPA with PacifiCorp, quadrupling the storage capacity from 400MWh to 1,600MWh. Green River Energy Centre is the seventh largest solar-plus-storage project under development in the US, according to trade body American Clean Power Association (ACP) figures cited by rPlus Energies.
At that time, rPlus Energies also announced that construction of the project would start in the second quarter of 2024, with capital investment of more than US$1 billion. The company had also planned to bring the project to the market for tax and debt financing “in the near future”, which required US$1 billion of capital investment.
It is the third PPA between rPLus and PacifiCorp, with the utility aiming to have 7.4GW of energy storage in its network by 2029.
Not long before, rPlus Energies formed a partnership with private investment firm Sandbrook Capital to secure US$460 million. The investment would help rPlus Energies bring 1GW of renewables projects and BESS online “in the near-term”.
The project was submitted to PacifiCorp’s request for proposal (RFP) – where it sought 1.8GW of solar PV and 600MW of BESS to scale up its renewables energy capacity – and was later shortlisted and awarded through a competitive process.
