Photo: Cypress Creek Energy
Cypress Creek Energy has reached a big milestone in Arkansas for one of the largest solar-plus-storage projects in the US.
The company just closed financing on the first two phases of the Steel River Energy Center in Arkansas – a $3.5 billion deal that will fund construction and long-term operation of the project.
Phases 1 and 2 combined will add 1.63 gigawatts (GW) of solar and 1.9 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of battery storage to the regional grid. When all three phases are complete, Steel River is expected to deliver 2.45 GW of solar and 2.9 GWh of battery storage by 2029.
Steel River will use 100% US-made structural steel, with nearly all sourced from Mississippi County, Arkansas, and domestically manufactured solar panels from First Solar. It’s expected to create around 700 construction jobs onsite.
The financing attracted strong interest from lenders, which isn’t surprising given the strong demand for large-scale energy infrastructure right now. The deal was fully underwritten by four coordinating lead arrangers: Barclays, BNP Paribas, Santander, and Wells Fargo. Cypress Creek also closed tax equity financing with a major investor at the same time, and secured long-term power sales for both phases through a virtual power purchase agreement with an investment-grade corporate buyer.
CEO Kevin Smith said the financing reflects “strong support from the capital markets for high-quality energy infrastructure projects,” and that the project will help meet Arkansas’s and the US’s “rapidly growing electricity demand while delivering long-term economic benefits to local communities.”
Read more: Arkansas turns on its first-ever utility-scale wind farm
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