Cypress Creek reaches fin close on Texas solar-plus-storage project

US renewable energy plants developer and operator Cypress Creek Renewables has closed a USD-216-million (EUR 218m) debt financing deal for its 208-MW Zier solar park with battery storage in Texas and announced the start of construction activities.

The transaction included the provision of a construction-to-term loan, tax equity bridge loan and letter of credit facilities, Cypress Creek said on Tuesday.

Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale acted as coordinating lead arranger lender and letter of credit issuing bank alongside Rabobank. National Bank of Canada and the North American Development Bank were joint lead arrangers of the deal, in which North American Development Bank earlier said it has participated with USD 46.9 million.

Cypress Creek’s Zier Solar and Energy Storage Project will be located in Texas’ Kinney County and will be connected to the state power grid. Once up and running, the photovoltaic (PV) park is anticipated to generate around 414.3 GWh of electricity in the first year of operation, or enough to cover the consumption of over 30,000 homes. The plant will be coupled with a 40-MW/80-MWh battery energy storage system, which will store its output and electricity from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid.

Cypress Creek has so far developed close to 2 GW of solar projects in Texas. Zier is its first solar-storage scheme in the state, it noted.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 1.009)

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