Akaysha Energy announced the completion of a $650 million debt raise with a consortium of eleven domestic and international banks.
This financing will support the construction of Akaysha’s Orana Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), one of the largest four-hour batteries globally. The project will add over 1,660 Megawatt-hours of storage capacity to the National Electricity Market (NEM).
The lender group includes major domestic banks such as ANZ, CBA, and Westpac, along with international banks like BNP, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, DBS, ING, Mizuho, Rabobank, Siemens Financial Services via Siemens Bank, and SMBC.
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The loan has a duration of three years and will be utilized to finance the development of Akaysha’s most recent venture, Orana, situated near Wellington, New South Wales, in the Central West Orana Renewable Energy Zone (REZ).
The funding also includes over A$75m of Letters of Credit to back the project’s security requirements. Andrew Wegman, Akaysha’s Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer, announced this funding following an earlier declaration in April this year of an A$250m BESS portfolio debt financing.
With Orana commencing construction, Akaysha presently has more than 4GWh of energy storage projects being constructed in Australia.