Key Capture Energy completes ITC transfer and construction on two 100MW Texas BESS projects

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KCE previously sold ITCs for BESS projects KCE TX 19 and KCE TX 21 in Williamson County, Texas, totalling 100MW and the 20MW KCE NY 6 located in Erie County, New York in 2023.

Before the IRA, ITCs could only be used by setting up complicated tax equity joint ventures to invest in the project. The IRA introduced a new way to sell ITCs, through ‘transferability’(Premium access article), allowing developers to sell ITCs associated with clean energy projects to another company in exchange for funds.

Likewise, IPP Ormat Technologies monetised the credit it received for the 80MW/320MWh Bottleneck BESS in California by selling the ITC for which the project was eligible, covering 40% of the project’s capital expenditure.

For the announced Texas projects, Investment bank CRC-IB served as financial advisor to KCE, which was represented in the deal by law firm Clifford Chance US LLP. Trek Capital Partners served as financial advisor to the buyer, who was represented by international law firm Akin LLP.

CRC-IB also served as KCE’s financial advisor in the company’s first ITC sale.

KCE also recently announced that the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) approved two large-scale BESS projects in Long Island: the 50MW/200MWh Shoreham BESS and the 79MW/316MWh King BESS.

ITCs also exist in neighbouring Canada, allowing for creative financing deals. Developer Boralex and its partner Six Nations of the Grand River Development Corporation (SNGRDC) recently closed a US$372.2 million financing for a 300MW/1,200MWh BESS. Part of the funding structure was US$99 million to be repaid when ITCs are received for the project.

The North American division of Sweden’s Eolus Vind has agreed to sell the 100MW/400MWh Pome battery energy storage system (BESS) project.

Chinese battery manufacturer Hithium and Samsung C&T Engineering & Construction (Samsung C&T) have penned a new agreement targeting around 10GWh of battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity globally.

Global solar developer Lightsource bp and Acen Australia have seen each of their respective solar-plus-storage projects in New South Wales, Australia, totalling 550MW of generation capacity, progress.

Dan Finn-Foley of Clean Energy Associates looks at the road ahead for the US battery storage industry in the first of a series of regular, exclusive Guest Blogs for Energy-Storage.news.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is investing US$28.7 million into grid resilience projects for Florida.