San Antonio-based North American Development Bank, alongside global technology company Siemens and California-based EnerSmart Storage, signed a new $78.2 million loan this week to design and construct energy storage projects with 165-megawatt total combined capacity at nine California sites.
The forthcoming 165-megawatt energy storage portfolio will be able to store up to 330 megawatt-hours of electricity — equal to the energy supplied to 110,000 customers for up to two hours. The new projects are slated to charge and discharge approximately 87,650 megawatt-hours of energy.
It's the first such reported project financing of of a fully merchant battery storage project in the United States. A merchant project is one in which recovering the invested capital is based on agreed-upon rates with a third party, such as a generator or utility.
These new projects funded by NADBank will help provide energy and possibly resource adequacy to California's grid and will help offset power disruptions and reduce energy loss, boosting the reliability of the state's power grid. Transmission lines already owned by San Diego Gas and Electric will be used to store and deliver electricity from the grid.
NADBank Managing Director Calixto Mateos-Hanel said the new project is an innovative new way to increase energy efficiency and displace CO2 emissions, noting that it aligns with the Bank' s ongoing goal of helping develop sustainable infrastructure and tackle climate change at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The announcement comes on the heels of other recent clean energy investments by NADBank, such as $200,000 in grant funding allocated in February to reduce wastewater flow into the Rio Grande in an agreement with Nuevo Laredo water utilities, the Tamaulipas state water agency, and the Mexican National Water Commission.
NADBank also financed two projects totaling more than $20 million in January to provide new drinking water and wastewater collection near Vinton, a village about 25 miles north of El Paso. In December, NADBank's Board also approved $87.5 million in financing for energy storage, wastewater treatment and medical facilities in California, Arizona and Sonora, Mexico.
The North American Development Bank, established in 1994 during North American Free Trade Agreement negotiations, develops and finances environmental infrastructure on the U.S.-Mexico border. NADBank supports loans and grants for projects up to 62 miles into the United States or 186 miles into Mexico.
