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    esVolta Secures $243M to Fund Construction of Three Texas Battery Storage Projects

    Jan. 28, 2025
    The Anole, Desert Willow and Burksol projects are already under construction and are expected to reach commercial operations in the first half of this year.
    Aerial of Desert Willow BESS project. Image credit esVolta
    Aerial of Desert Willow BESS project. Image credit esVolta

    Energy transition equity investor Captona LLC has supported energy storage developer esVolta LP to secure close to $243 million to fund construction of three utility-scale battery projects heading toward completion in Texas.

    The Anole, Desert Willow and Burksol projects are already under construction and are expected to reach commercial operations in the first half of this year.  Altogether, the three battery projects will total close to 1GWh of battery energy storage system capacity discharge output into the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) market.

    Texas is one of the nation’s current biggest adopters of distributed resources such as solar and battery energy storage systems (BESS). The state also is ramping up deployment of microgrids as it works to shore up an ERCOT system which almost failed during the extended freeze of Winter Storm Uri in early 2021.

    Research firm Wood Mackenzie estimated that the global BESS market expanded by 44% last year to about 69 GW/161 GWh of capacity discharge output. The WoodMac report predicted that global energy storage would surpass 3 TWh over the next decade.

    This kind of optimism and demand around utility-scale battery storage is benefitting BESS-focused companies such as esVolta. The company raised $900 million of capital in 2024, according to reports.

    "esVolta is leading the transformation of the electric grid,” Chief Financial Officer Justin Johns said in a statement. “Focused on sustainability and innovation, we appreciate Captona's partnership in this transaction, enabling us to continue delivering value for utilities, energy users, and investors alike."

    The $243 million preferred equity transaction between Captona and esVolta includes capital and the sale of investment tax credit transfer proceeds, according to the report.

    esVolta started construction on the 200-MWh Burksol standalone battery storage site in Dickens County two weeks ago. The project was acquired from Highfield Energy in 2022.

    If the esVolta funding deal is any indication sector-wide, the growth of grid-scale battery storage is continuing despite fears over tariff battles and the recent fire at the Vistra Corp.’s Moss Landing BESS facility in California.

    Smaller scale BESS are often part of new microgrids which combine and control both conventional and renewable resources. Installation of commercial microgrids has expanded 20-fold in Texas over the past decade in the wake of outages caused by hurricanes and other weather catastrophes such as Uri.

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    About the Author

    Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor | Senior Editor

    For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

    Rod Walton has spent 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

    He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.

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