Intersect Power has announced the closure of two significant transactions, securing a total of $837m in financing commitments. These funds will be used for the construction and operation of three standalone Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) in Texas. The transactions involve portfolio-level construction debt, tax equity, and term debt financing with leading industry partners.
All three BESS projects—Lumina I, Lumina II, and Radian—are slated to become operational in 2024. Each project will feature 86 Megapacks, Tesla’s advanced battery energy storage system. Lumina II and Radian will utilize Autobidder, Tesla’s real-time trading platform, for their operations. Moving from concept to commissioning in less than 12 months, each site will offer 320 MWh of battery storage with a two-hour duration. These batteries will provide additional flexibility to Intersect’s Texas operations, which include 1.2 GWp of solar power and 1 GWh of battery storage.
Intersect Power founder and CEO Sheldon Kimber said: “Batteries will be a vital part of the energy transition and are the perfect complement to the billions of dollars of solar generation that we are building in California and Texas.
“These assets should allow us to provide more consistent financial performance from a diversified fleet of renewable generation and storage, benefiting from increasing market volatility and periods of high prices while protecting us from periods of low market prices. This stability will be critical as we expect to triple the size of our portfolio over the next three years.”
Morgan Stanley has been chosen to provide tax equity, while funds and accounts managed by HPS Investment Partners will contribute construction debt and term debt investments. Deutsche Bank is collaborating on the construction debt facility and supplying operational letters of credit for the projects. These projects are eligible for Investment Tax Credits under the Inflation Reduction Act.
Intersect and its partners were represented by various legal counsel and advisors for these deals. Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe served as lead counsel for Intersect Power on all transactions. CCA Capital advised Intersect Power on the tax equity transactions. Willkie Farr & Gallagher acted as counsel for Morgan Stanley Renewables, while Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom represented HPS and Deutsche Bank.
