Texas-based Leeward Renewable Energy (LRE) has closed financing for its Chaparral Springs Solar + BESS facility located in Kern County, California.
The company secured $260 million in green loan construction financing from Wells Fargo, MUFG and Silicon Valley Bank.
MUFG and Silicon Valley Bank served as joint lead arrangers while Wells Fargo served as:
administrative
green structuring agent
coordinating lead arranger
JP Morgan also provided $29 million of tax equity investment and committed to investing $114 million once the project is operational – slated for September (2023).
Once completed, the facility will provide 174MW of renewable energy to 2 not-for-profit, community-owned electricity providers – Peninsula Clean Energy and Valley Clean Energy – through 2 15-year power purchase agreements.
Chaparral Springs will also deliver electricity to the 2 providers from its 88MW, 352 MWh battery storage system, which will improve the clean power grid’s resiliency.
Chris Loehr, senior vice president of finance at LRE, said: “We are pleased to close financing on our Chaparral Springs project and our continuing expansion of our relationship with each of these leading financial institutions as we grow our solar-plus-storage presence in California.”
“This milestone follows the successful development and operation of our Rabbitbrush Solar project, which is adjacent to Chaparral Springs, and further demonstrates our commitment to excellence and ability to deliver on our pipeline of contracted projects.”