Spearmint Energy, a renewable energy company that focuses on BESS, has announced that Elda River Capital Management will join its $200m enhanced credit facility alongside Nuveen’s Energy Infrastructure Credit team and Aiga Capital Partners.
The loan is to support the continued development and operation of Spearmint’s 4.1GW portfolio of BESS assets. This includes more than 1GW of projects nearing construction in Texas, where the company is one of the largest BESS developers.
The $200m term loan initially went through in June 2023 with Aiga. Nuveen joined in December 2023 as a co-anchor to help provide debt and structured equity solutions.
Craig Rohr, partner and co-founder of Elda River, said: “Spearmint has distinguished itself as a leader in both developing and safely operating utility-scale BESS projects in ERCOT [Electric Reliability Council of Texas] and ISOs [independent system operators] nationally. As we continue to focus our efforts on identifying and providing capital to exceptional companies that are championing the energy transition, we are excited to partner with the Nuveen Energy Infrastructure Credit and Aiga teams to support the strategic growth and development of Spearmint’s BESS portfolio.”
Cory Magnuson, chief financial officer of Spearmint, added: “We are proud to welcome Elda River as a financing partner as we continue growing our BESS portfolio and developing our project pipeline.
"The Elda River team has a proven track record of successfully investing in the renewable energy and infrastructure sectors and shares our mission of enabling nationwide access to cost-effective clean energy. Their partnership further underscores investors’ trust in Spearmint’s ability to meaningfully contribute to a greener future through battery energy storage.”
Spearmint has more than 20 projects, totalling more than ten gigawatt-hours of capacity across four regions in the US.
According to the US Energy Information Administration, battery energy storage capacity in the US has continuously increased since 2021 and is expected to increase by 89% in 2024. Texas has the second-largest battery storage capacity of all the states, registering 3.2GW. California is first with 7.3GW.
