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    SB Energy Secures $2.4 billion for 1.3 GW Portfolio of 4 Utility-Scale Solar Projects

    Dec. 4, 2023
    Google plans to buy about 75% of the energy produced by these four projects to power data centers in Texas
    Image Source: SB Energy
    656e01d7908200001ea6031e Sb Energy

    SB Energy has secured a combined total of $2.4 billion to domestically produce renewable energy at scale through a 1.3 GW portfolio of four utility-scale solar projects. 

    Approximately $800 million in tax equity was closed in partnership with J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley Renewables Inc., and Truist Bank. An additional $450 million in term debt and $1.2 billion in construction debt were also raised in partnership with seven other financial institutions.

    SB Energy will support more than 3,600 new direct and supply chain jobs across the four projects located in energy communities experiencing higher-than-average unemployment rates due to recent coal closures or fossil fuel retirements.

    Three of the projects are the first utility-scale projects in the U.S. to reach financial close with the domestic content adder, a provision in the Inflation Reduction Act to strengthen America's manufacturing base and the jobs supporting it. SB Energy is utilizing 1.1 million high domestic content solar modules manufactured by First Solar in Ohio to qualify for the provision.

    Nextracker is also supplying trackers with recently expanded component providers in multiple U.S. states like Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Tennessee, among others. Domestically sourced steel from Texas and Georgia will be used on these same projects.

    Google plans to buy about 75% of the energy produced by these four projects to power data centers in Texas. Google will also invest $330 million in Texas to initiate the construction of a new data center in Red Oak in 2023. 

    J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley Renewables, and Truist Bank provided the tax equity for the Orion I, Eiffel, Orion II, and Orion III projects, respectively. 

    MUFG and Mizuho Americas are the lead lenders on the Eiffel and Orion II and Orion I and III projects, respectively, while other lenders for the projects are ING, SMBC, CIBC, Fifth Third Bank, and Societe Generale.

    "By partnering with leading tax equity investors and lenders on these latest financings, we are extending our track record of deploying renewable generation at scale,” said Gianluca Signorelli, SB Energy's Head of Capital Markets. “Moreover, by utilizing the IRA's domestic content and energy community adders, we have created a blueprint for deploying clean infrastructure that advances America's prosperity and wellbeing.” 

    About the Author

    EnergyTech Staff

    Rod Walton is senior editor for EnergyTech.com. He has spent 14 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist.

    Walton 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.

    He can be reached at [email protected]. 

    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.

    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.