Enlight Renewable Energy Ltd. (“Enlight”, “the Company”, NASDAQ:
ENLT, TASE: ENLT.TA), a leading global renewable energy platform,
today announced that the Company has closed the financing (the
“financial close”) for the Energy Storage portion of its flagship
Atrisco Solar and Energy Storage project, located outside
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA (the “Financing”). The Company reached
financial close on the Atrisco Solar project in December 2023, and
the financing of the Energy Storage portion completes financing and
tax equity arrangements for the entire Atrisco project.
The Atrisco complex combines364 MW of solar generation capacity
with 1.2 GWh of battery storage, cost $827 million to build, and
will be financed by $290 million of term debt and $420 million of
tax equity (a combined 86% of total cost), with Enlight’s long-term
equity investmentamounting to $117 million (14% of total cost). The
project, which is the largest project undertaken by the Company to
date, is now in the commissioning phase leading up to partial COD,
and is expected to reach full COD later this year.
As part of the financial close, Enlight through its subsidiary,
Clenera Holdings LLC, has entered into a loan agreement with a
consortium of eight leading global banks led by HSBC, totaling $401
million to finance the construction of Atrisco Energy Storage. The
loan will convert into a $185 million term loan from the same group
of lenders and tax equity financing of $222 million provided by
U.S. Bancorp Impact Finance upon the project’s COD. The term loan
is structured with a 20-year underlying amortization profile with a
5-year mini perm, and is subject to an all-in interest rate (fixed
base + margin) of 5.6% to 5.9%. The competitive financing terms
achieved reflect the high quality of the Atrisco project.
The Atrisco Solar project was financed by a consortium of
leading global banks led by HSBC, and tax equity was provided by
Bank of America. The Atrisco project’s tax equity financing
qualified for the Energy Community IRA adder due to a brownfield
addition to the project.
In connection with the financing of the Atrisco Energy Storage
project, Enlight expects to recycle $234 million of equity back to
its balance sheet, which will be used to fund future growth.
Additional financial information regarding the Atrisco co-located
solar and energy storage complex appears in the following
table:
(as expected at COD)
|
Total project cost
|
Term debt
|
Upfront tax equity
|
Sponsor equity
|
Atrisco Storage
|
$458 million
|
$185 million
|
$ 222 million
|
$52 million
|
Atrisco Solar
|
$369 million
|
$105 million
|
$198 million1
|
$65 million
|
Total
|
$827 million
|
$290 million
|
$420 million
|
$117 million
|
|
Total project cost net of tax equity
|
Expected revenuesin first full year
|
Expected EBITDA2in first full year
|
Atrisco Storage
|
$236 million
|
$32-34 million
|
$27-29 million
|
Atrisco Solar
|
$171 million
|
$19-21 million
|
$14-16 million
|
Total
|
$407 million
|
$51-55 million
|
$41-45 million
|
1 The tax equity partner, Bank of America, monetizes 90% of the
PTCs, while the company is entitled to monetize the remaining 10%.
The upfront tax equity payment to be received by the Company upon
project COD reflects approximately 75% of Bank of America’s share
of the PTCs. The remaining 25% will be paid annually to the Company
by Bank of America, based on actual production, over the initial 10
years of the project’s operation.
2 EBITDA is a non-IFRS financial measure. This figure represents
consolidated EBITDA for the projects and excludes all ITC and PTC
proceeds. The tax equity partner’s share in the distributions is
19% for the energy storage project and 17.5% for the solar project,
applicable for the first five and ten years of operation,
respectively.
Atrisco is located on a desert plateau with extremely high solar
irradiation and is sized at approximately 1,700 acres. The project
construction was led by RES, one of the leading EPC contractors in
the U.S., and the battery energy storage system provided by Tesla.
Atrisco is expected to provide clean electricity equivalent to the
average annual consumption of approximately 110,000 New Mexico
households through a 20-year busbar PPA agreement with Public
Service Company of New Mexico covering both electricity production
and energy storage.
After the completion of our APEX project in Montana, earlier
this year, Atrisco is the second of several major solar and energy
storage projects the Company will begin building in the U.S. in the
coming months, including Country Acres (392 MW and 688 MWh);
Roadrunner (290 MW and 940 MWh(; and Quail Ranch (128 MW and 400
MWh), a brownfield extension of Atrisco. These, along with
additional projects planned to be built in the years to come, are
driving Enlight’s massive expansion into the U.S. renewable energy
market. This is best illustrated by the share of U.S. generation
capacity within Enlight’s total installed base, which is expected
to rise from 5% at the end of 2023 to 59% by the end of 2026.
Gilad Yavetz, CEO of Enlight, commented: “The Atrisco complex is
Enlight’s flagship project in the United States, and today’s
financial close is another important step in the completion of this
project. We look forward to the phased COD of Atrisco, expected to
begin during this quarter, in which years of effort will finally
come to fruition. Enlight is embarking on an ambitious and rapid
growth plan in the U.S., which is set to become a major market for
us in the coming years, complementing the large and growing
capacity footprint we have built up in MENA and Europe. Atrisco
represents another step of this major expansion.”
“HSBC is proud to support Enlight’s continued development of the
Atrisco project through the addition of the Energy Storage System
to the existing Solar Project. The cross-border, multinational
collaboration is a testament to our mutual ambition to transition
to a net-zero future,” said Paul Snow, Head of Renewables,
Americas, HSBC Infrastructure Finance
“We are pleased to collaborate with Clenera as part of our
continued commitment to facilitate the transition to a greener
economy,” said U.S. Bancorp Impact Finance Senior Vice President
and Business Development Officer Colin Witherspoon. “With this
deal, we expanded our environmental finance platform by seamlessly
providing project finance and tax equity.”
About Enlight
Renewable Energy
Founded in 2008, Enlight develops, finances, constructs, owns,
and operates utility-scale renewable energy projects. Enlight
operates across the three largest renewable segments today: solar,
wind and energy storage. A global platform, Enlight operates in the
United States, Israel and 10 European countries. Enlight has been
traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange since 2010 (TASE: ENLT) and
completed its US IPO (NASDAQ: ENLT) in 2023. Learn more at
enlightenergy.co.il.
Investor Contact
Yonah WeiszDirector IRinvestors@enlightenergy.co.il
Erica Mannion or Mike FunariSapphire Investor Relations, LLC +1
617 542 6180investors@enlightenergy.co.il Cautionary Note
Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within
the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. We intend such forward-looking statements to be covered by
the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements as
contained in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended,
and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.
All statements contained in this press release other than
statements of historical fact, including, without limitation,
statements regarding the Company’s expectations relating to the
Project, the PPA and the related interconnection agreement and
lease option, and the completion timeline for the Project, are
forward-looking statements. The words “may,” “might,” “will,”
“could,” “would,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,”
“intend,” “target,” “seek,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,”
“potential,” “continue,” “contemplate,” “possible,” “forecasts,”
“aims” or the negative of these terms and similar expressions are
intended to identify forward-looking statements, though not all
forward-looking statements use these words or expressions. These
statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known
and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that
may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be
materially different from any future results, performance or
achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking
statements, including, but not limited to, the following: our
ability to site suitable land for, and otherwise source, renewable
energy projects and to successfully develop and convert them into
Operational Projects; availability of, and access to,
interconnection facilities and transmission systems; our ability to
obtain and maintain governmental and other regulatory approvals and
permits, including environmental approvals and permits;
construction delays, operational delays and supply chain
disruptions leading to increased cost of materials required for the
construction of our projects, as well as cost overruns and delays
related to disputes with contractors; our suppliers’ ability and
willingness to perform both existing and future obligations;
competition from traditional and renewable energy companies in
developing renewable energy projects; potential slowed demand for
renewable energy projects and our ability to enter into new offtake
contracts on acceptable terms and prices as current offtake
contracts expire; offtakers’ ability to terminate contracts or seek
other remedies resulting from failure of our projects to meet
development, operational or performance benchmarks; various
technical and operational challenges leading to unplanned outages,
reduced output, interconnection or termination issues; the
dependence of our production and revenue on suitable meteorological
and environmental conditions, and our ability to accurately predict
such conditions; our ability to enforce warranties provided by our
counterparties in the event that our projects do not perform as
expected; government curtailment, energy price caps and other
government actions that restrict or reduce the profitability of
renewable energy production; electricity price volatility, unusual
weather conditions (including the effects of climate change, could
adversely affect wind and solar conditions), catastrophic
weather-related or other damage to facilities, unscheduled
generation outages, maintenance or repairs, unanticipated changes
to availability due to higher demand, shortages, transportation
problems or other developments, environmental incidents, or
electric transmission system constraints and the possibility that
we may not have adequate insurance to cover losses as a result of
such hazards; our dependence on certain operational projects for a
substantial portion of our cash flows; our ability to continue to
grow our portfolio of projects through successful acquisitions;
changes and advances in technology that impair or eliminate the
competitive advantage of our projects or upsets the expectations
underlying investments in our technologies; our ability to
effectively anticipate and manage cost inflation, interest rate
risk, currency exchange fluctuations and other macroeconomic
conditions that impact our business; our ability to retain and
attract key personnel; our ability to manage legal and regulatory
compliance and litigation risk across our global corporate
structure; our ability to protect our business from, and manage the
impact of, cyber-attacks, disruptions and security incidents, as
well as acts of terrorism or war; changes to existing renewable
energy industry policies and regulations that present technical,
regulatory and economic barriers to renewable energy projects; the
reduction, elimination or expiration of government incentives for,
or regulations mandating the use of, renewable energy; our ability
to effectively manage our supply chain and comply with applicable
regulations with respect to international trade relations, tariffs,
sanctions, export controls and anti-bribery and anti-corruption
laws; our ability to effectively comply with Environmental Health
and Safety and other laws and regulations and receive and maintain
all necessary licenses, permits and authorizations; our performance
of various obligations under the terms of our indebtedness (and the
indebtedness of our subsidiaries that we guarantee) and our ability
to continue to secure project financing on attractive terms for our
projects; limitations on our management rights and operational
flexibility due to our use of tax equity arrangements; potential
claims and disagreements with partners, investors and other
counterparties that could reduce our right to cash flows generated
by our projects; our ability to comply with tax laws of various
jurisdictions in which we currently operate as well as the tax laws
in jurisdictions in which we intend to operate in the future; the
unknown effect of the dual listing of our ordinary shares on the
price of our ordinary shares; various risks related to our
incorporation and location in Israel; the costs and requirements of
being a public company, including the diversion of management’s
attention with respect to such requirements; certain provisions in
our Articles of Association and certain applicable regulations that
may delay or prevent a change of control; and other risk factors
set forth in the section titled “Risk factors” in our Annual Report
on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023, filed
with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and our
other documents filed with or furnished to the SEC.
These statements reflect management’s current expectations
regarding future events and speak only as of the date of this press
release. You should not put undue reliance on any forward-looking
statements. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in
the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee
that future results, levels of activity, performance and events and
circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be
achieved or will occur. Except as may be required by applicable
law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise publicly any
forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise, after the date on which the statements
are made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
Enlight Renewable Energy (NASDAQ:ENLT)
Graphique Historique de l'Action
De Déc 2024 à Jan 2025
Enlight Renewable Energy (NASDAQ:ENLT)
Graphique Historique de l'Action
De Jan 2024 à Jan 2025