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Santander and Keybanc provided the debt financing facility for the Blacks Creek project. Image: rPlus Energies.
US independent power producer (IPP) rPlus Energies has secured over US$650 million in debt facilities to support construction work at its Blacks Creek Energy Centre in the US state of Idaho.
The project, which will be built in Ada County, will consist of a 400MW solar PV facility. The latest round of financing includes a debt financing facility, led by Santander Corporate & Investment Banking and KeyBanc Capital Markets, alongside a tax equity financing commitment from Santander.
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“By delivering a holistic financing solution that combines traditional tax equity with our leading project finance and advisory practice, Santander is positioned as an end-to-end strategic partner supporting rPlus’ ambitious growth strategy,” explained Santander US head of structured finance Nuno Andrade.
The IPP also noted that electricity from the project would be delivered to the grid operated by local utility Idaho Power, and be used to support the “public commitments” made by Meta pertaining to its Kuna Data Center, which is currently under construction in Idaho. This is the second project with an offtake agreement in place with Idaho Power to secure financed this week, following Clēnera raising US$304 million in finance for its 120MW Crimson Orchard solar-plus-storage project in the state.
When rPlus Energies first acquired the Blacks Creek project last November, it said that it expected to begin commercial operation in 2027, and today, rPlus Energies communications manager Maile Resta confirmed to PV Tech that this timeline is still in place, with rPlus Energies aiming to begin construction this year and start commercial operations next year.
However, last year, rPlus also described the project as including 200MW of battery energy storage systems (BESS), but makes no reference to the storage component in its latest update. Resta told PV Tech today that “the project is currently solar only,” and that plans to add a storage component would be reassessed later.
“Any storage component would be considered as a future phase, which is why it is not referenced in the latest announcement,” Resta added.
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https://www.pv-tech.org/ipp-rplus-energies-secures-us650-million-400mw-idaho-solar-pv-project/
