Huge finance deal and off-take landed for one of Australia’s biggest four-hour battery projects
Image: Akaysha Energy
Rachel Williamson
Jul 15, 2024
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Battery storage developer Akaysha Energy says has locked in $650 million to build its four hour Orana battery in NSW, a project, in a deal that it says is the largest investment in a single battery anywhere in the world.
Akaysha Energy, the battery storage upstart backed by global funds giant BlackRock and which is also building the Waratah Super battery, another landmark project, says it has also secured a 12-year “virtual” offtake deal for a 200 megawatts (MW) component of the Orana project with EnergyAustralia.
“This ground-breaking and flexible offtake allows EnergyAustralia to virtually “charge” and “discharge” the 200MW ‘virtual battery’ to manage its price and load commitments to its customers, particularly during high demand periods,” says Akaysha Energy COO Paul Curnow.
That deal was critical to securing the funding for 415 megawatts (MW)/ 1660 megawatt hours (MWh) Orana battery, and it shows just how complicated financing is today for new energy projects.
The Orana BESS has long term energy service agreements with NSW and the federal government — it was named
one of the winners of the first federal capacity investment scheme auction in November last year — and it has full NSW planning approvals, and the private offtake agreement with EnergyAustralia.
But even with those puzzle pieces in place, Akaysha had to bring 11 different funders together, with domestic support coming from ANZ, CBA and Westpac, and internationally from BNP, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, DBS, ING, Mizuho, Rabobank, Siemens Bank and SMBC.
The deal shows how massive renewable projects which require huge amounts of capital can be financed, even with a complex contracted offtake deal, says Akaysha Energy CEO Nick Carter.
