Deutsche Bank arranges the US$392m financing for Doral Renewables US solar energy project

The New York branch of Deutsche Bank has arranged the financing of the first phase of Doral Renewables LLC’s (Doral) broader Mammoth Solar project – Mammoth North.

Mammoth North is located on 4,500 acres in Starke County, Indiana, in the US. The project will be a ground-mounted single axis photovoltaic (PV) system with 400 megawatts of an alternating current (MWac) of solar power capacity. Doral is also developing the nearby Mammoth Central and Mammoth South projects which, together with Mammoth North, will bring 1.3GWac of capacity to market as one of America’s largest collective solar farms.

The company explains, “The project will generate approximately 1.6 gigawatts of long-duration energy storage (GWdc) of clean energy to 275,000 households in the Midwest, annually. The projects will include an economic investment of approximately US$1.5bn and comprise of three phases- Mammoth North (Phase One, generation capacity of 360MWdc), Mammoth South (Phase Two, generation capacity of 480 MWdc), and Mammoth Central (Phase Three, generation capacity of 720 MWdc). Mammoth North and Mammoth South already have Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) signed with utilities giant American Electric Power.

Deutsche Bank acted as sole book runner, sole structuring bank and mandated lead arranger for the US$392m financing. This comprised a US$157m construction-to-term loan facility, a US$170m tax equity bridge loan, and a US$65m letter of credit facility.

Bayerische Landesbank, New York Branch and National Bank of Canada acted as lead managers with Banco de Sabadell, S.A, Miami Branch, Comerica Bank, a Texas banking association, Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A., New York Branch, and Metropolitan Life Insurance Company rounding out the syndicate for the debt and letter of credit facilities. The closing was completed simultaneously with Doral’s signing of almost US$175m of tax equity commitment for the project from Bank of America N.A.

“We look forward to continuing to work with our financing partners to bring clean energy …to customers throughout the United States”
Evan Speece, Chief Financial Officer at Doral Renewables LLC

“We are proud to support Doral with this financing and to have partnered with their world class development team and furthered Deutsche Bank’s commitment to Sustainable Financing,” said Jeremy Eisman, Head of Infrastructure & Energy Financing and Structuring at Deutsche Bank.

“Doral is thrilled to have collaborated with Deutsche Bank to raise this important piece of capital which will enable us to bring Mammoth North to commercial operation as expected in 2023,” said Evan Speece, Chief Financial Officer at Doral Renewables LLC. “We look forward to continuing to work with our financing partners to bring clean energy from the other stages of Mammoth, and the rest of our growing pipeline, to customers throughout the United States.”

By way of background, Doral is a US-based joint venture owned by the Doral Renewal Energy Resources Group, a publicly traded Israeli a publicly traded Israeli renewable energy company, together with Migdal Group, Israel’s largest insurance company and pension manager, and other US co-owners. Doral is developing an 11GWac wind, solar, and storage portfolio across 20 states, eight electricity markets and covering approximately 100,000 acres of land. It has more than US$2bn in long-term wholesale power purchase agreements with US customers.