Pacific Green reaches funding for MW Richborough energy park battery development.
Pacific Green Technologies announces that it has reached financial close for £28.25 million ($34.90 million) of senior debt for the Company's 99.98MW battery energy storage system ("BESS") at Richborough Energy Park.
The senior debt, in conjunction with the equity investment by Green Power Reserves, will provide the Company with the funding to bring the battery park to commercial operations in June 2023. The senior debt facility agreement is entered into with Close Leasing Limited (‘CLL’), pursuant to which CLL will provide a development loan to fund the construction, which will be utilised in stages following the expenditure of the equity investment. The development loan will then be refinanced into a 10-year amortised term loan upon the start of commercial operations. Scott Poulter, Pacific Green's Chief Executive, comments: "Reaching Financial Close is a big milestone in Pacific Green's transition into the world's leading vertical energy developer. This development has proven itself through the rigorous due diligence process and requirements of project finance, providing a template for Pacific Green to scale rapidly." James Sutcliffe, Managing Director of Close Brothers Leasing's Energy team remarks: "We are thrilled to participate in this ground-breaking project finance scheme on one of the UK's largest battery energy storage systems, we look forward to working with Pacific Green on this project and the rest of their 1.1GW UK pipeline." Scott adds: "Bankable projects such as Richborough Energy Park are the cornerstone of Pacific Green's ‘ODCO2 Energy Development Platform’, which specialises in developing and operating optimised, turnkey renewable energy and storage parks across their entire lifecycle." CLL is a market leader in providing specialist, structured finance solutions ranging in value from £250,000 to £50 million, particularly working with select, strategic partners to offer finance solutions in the renewable energy sector. CLL is part of Close Brothers Group plc.