Grenergy secures financing for two phases of world’s biggest battery project

Spanish IPP Grenergy has achieved the financial close of phase 1 and 2 of its Oasis de Atacama project in Chile, which will eventually feature the world’s largest battery energy storage system.

With a capacity of 4.1 GWh in storage and about 1 GW of solar, Oasis the Atacama is divided into five phases. Currently under construction, the Quillagua connection – phase 1 – is scheduled to get off the ground by the end of 2024, while the next three phases are to be connected during 2025. 

On Wednesday, Grenergy said that it had signed a $345 million green loan with other complementary credit lines with the financial institutions BNP Paribas, Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking, Societe Generale, The Bank of Nova Scotia, and SMBC.

This financing covers the first two phases of the project, corresponding to 220 MWp of solar and 1.24 GWh of storage.

With this new agreement, Grenergy said that it had become the first company globally to sign financing of this size for a hybrid solar and battery project with a syndicate of international banks.

Grenergy’s Executive Chairman, David Ruiz de Andrés, said that “this operation demonstrates the bank’s confidence in the hybridization of solar plants with storage, and in Grenergy’s business model, which continues to make progress in becoming a world leader in storage.”

The project, to which Grenergy will allocate up to $1.4 billion, already has 75% of its energy contracted through various long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs).

In January, the company announced a PPA inked with “an unspecified power utility with an investment-grade credit rating” for a period of 15 years, under which it will provide more than 8 TWh. The offtake deal applies to the fourth phase of the Oasis de Atacama project, which features 260 MW of solar and 1.1 GWh of battery energy storage capacity. 

The PPA followed the company’s announcement of its first long-term offtake deal for 2 GWh of storage capacity corresponding to the first three phases of Oasis de Atacama. 

Grenergy has also inked what it calls “one of the world’s first night PPAs,” which includes the supply of green energy for 15 years to Chilean company EMOAC.

In January, the company announced it had closed the purchase of 1.1 GWh of batteries from BYD for the first two phases of the Oasis de Atacama project. Under the deal, the Chinese battery manufacturer will provide Grenergy with a total of 2,136 devices of its MC Cube ESS model.

Founded in 2007, Grenergy Renovables has been listed on the Spanish stock exchange since 2015. Its business model covers all project phases, from development through construction and financial structuring to plant operation and maintenance.

The company has a global platform of more than 15 GW of solar in various stages of development in the eleven countries where it operates in the European (Spain, Italy, Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom), North American (United States), and Latin American (Chile, Peru, Mexico, and Colombia) markets.