There have been a number of financial developments in the US this week, with Pine Gate Renewables and Enfinity Global securing financing, while ENGIE’s North American arm has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Google.
Pine Gate Renewables secures US$288 million
North Carolina-based Pine Gate Renewables has closed a US$288 million preferred equity investment with funds from Blackstone Credit & Insurance, to support the development of six solar projects with a combined capacity of 780MW.
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The projects will be split across two states, and Pine Gate noted that the facilities will be backed by corporate offtake agreements. However, the developer did not specify where the projects will be built, or identify the offtake partners, for this part of its portfolio. The company currently has more than 30GW of renewable power capacity currently under development.
“Leading Pine Gate’s first preferred equity investment was a significant milestone for our team and the enterprise at large,” said Meghan Comiskey, executive vice president for structured finance at Pine Gate Renewables. “A multiportfolio transaction with the exceptional partnership of Blackstone enables us to scale our business efficiently as we generate the power of tomorrow.”
Enfinity Global to develop 608MW portfolio
Florida-headquartered Enfinity Global has closed a US$97 million structured credit facility with global financial institution Nomura, to support a portfolio of solar assets with a combined capacity of 608MW.
The assets are considerably varied, with some in operation and others under construction, across three grids: the California Independent System Operator (CAISO); the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WEEC), which covers western states including California, Nevada and New Mexico; and the Southeastern Electric Reliability Council (SERC), which covers states in the east including Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas.
The credit facility also includes a potential upsize of US$400 million to further expand Enfinity’s US portfolio, which currently consists of 14.8GW of solar PV and energy storage capacity.
ENGIE North America signs PPA with Google
The North American arm of French renewable power company ENGIE has signed a PPA with technology giant Google, to deliver power from its Chillingham solar project in Bell County, Texas.
The project has a total operating capacity of 350GW, and the Google deal will see the technology giant acquire 90MW of this capacity. ENGIE is currently developing the project, north of Austin, and plans to commission the facility later this year. The deal was completed through LevelTen Energy’s Accelerated Process (LEAP), a programme developed by LevelTen and Google to accelerate the timeframe for signing PPAs, which the developers claim can cut power acquisition time by up to 80%.
Last week, LevelTen director Plácido Ostos told PV Tech Premium that Europe has seen a stabilisation in solar PPA prices after months of decline, as “there has been a lot of competition” for deals across the continent.
“We’re pleased to further our collaboration with ENGIE with new carbon-free energy from its Chillingham plant that will supply our operations in Texas with clean power,” said Amanda Peterson Corio, global head of data center energy at Google. “This agreement is another example of how using our scalable procurement approach is transforming the way the industry sells and purchases power, and ultimately speeds up the development of carbon free electricity.”
The image caption and credit at the top of this article have been corrected from the original version.
