Peregrine Energy bags $700M financing agreement to fund 7 GW storage and renewables pipeline

Dive Brief:

Clean energy platform Peregrine Energy Solutions has bagged a $700 million agreement with funds managed by AB CarVal, a global alternative investment manager, to fund its 7 GW pipeline of standalone battery, solar and wind projects, the company announced this week.
The funding will help Peregrine bring its project portfolio into operation and enable the firm to capture market arbitrage opportunities and expand into new areas, the company said. Its portfolio is spread across five independent system operators and 10 states.
Corporate funding into energy storage companies amounted to $7.1 billion globally in the first half of 2023, across 59 deals, according to Mercom Capital Group. However this is a significant drop compared to the $15.8 billion in 60 deals that the market saw in the first half of 2022.

Dive Insight:

Peregrine is focused on building and managing standalone battery storage and renewable energy projects across North America. The company has 43 projects totaling more than 7,000 MW. In January, it announced plans to develop two energy storage assets in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas market – Best Southwest BESS in Dallas County and Mallard BESS in Collin County – collectively amounting to 490 MW, scheduled to come online in early 2025.

The company’s agreement with AB CarVal to raise over $700 million in credit, equity and debt will provide it with significant new liquidity, Hagen Lee, CEO and founder of Peregrine said in a statement.

“This capital has the potential to accelerate our pipeline of high quality renewable and storage projects, taking them to [commercial operation date] and on to successful operation and optimization,” Lee added.

AB CarVal is confident that the partnership will lead to a dynamic portfolio of storage and renewable assets, Jody Gunderson, managing principal, said in a statement.

“In this energy transition, we anticipate strong and growing demand for renewables and storage across North America,” Gunderson added.

Total corporate funding for energy storage companies fell from $12.9 billion in the first quarter of 2022 to $2.2 billion in Q1 of this year, Mercom Capital Group reported in May. On the flip side, funding for solar companies was up 11% year-over-year.

Looking at the first half of 2023, the sector saw $3.8 billion across 43 deals in venture capital funding – compared to $3 billion over 48 deals in the first half of last year – and eight energy storage merger and acquisition transactions, down from 13 last year.

At the same time, the broader clean energy sector saw $271 billion in private investments for domestic projects and manufacturing facilities over the last year – more than the investments made over the last eight years combined – the American Clean Power Association announced in August. Eighty-three new or expanded utility-scale clean energy manufacturing facilities were announced during this time, according to the group, along with 29,780 new manufacturing jobs.