energyRe, the Charleston based renewable developer, has closed an 815 million dollar financing package for five utility scale solar projects in South Carolina with combined capacity of about 360 megawatts. The company described the transaction as one of the largest solar only project financings in the state’s history.
The five projects, Shorthorn, Culpepper, Clarendon, Rollins and Ross, are contracted under 25 year power purchase agreements with a major investor owned utility, agreed in February. Bank of America, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Santander supported the financing; Bank of America acted as documentation agent and Santander as financial adviser to energyRe. The structure was led by the company’s mergers and acquisitions and capital markets team under Surya Mohan, working with its lending and tax equity partners.
Chief financial officer Pedro Pereira called the portfolio financing the company’s largest to date and said it moves energyRe closer to its goal of investing 2 billion dollars in South Carolina by 2030. Including this package, the company has raised more than 1.9 billion dollars for a solar portfolio exceeding 1.8 gigawatts across 20 projects in South Carolina, North Carolina, Nebraska and Oklahoma. It has broken ground on about 450 megawatts in the past year and has nearly 700 megawatts operating or in late stage development. The projects are expected to power about 58,600 homes a year and generate tens of millions of dollars of revenue for local governments.
The financing matters beyond one developer. A five project, single state portfolio raised bank debt at scale on the strength of 25 year contracted revenues, the classic project finance formula, at a moment when listed renewable equities and early stage platforms have struggled. Lenders, at least for contracted US solar, are still open.