CIM Group’s Permanent Power Company has closed an approximately $600 million construction financing facility to advance its Grape solar and energy storage project in California. The capital stack is structured with several tranches, including an approximately $372.3 million construction-to-term loan, an approximately $166.7 million tax credit transfer bridge loan, and an approximately $61.3 million letter of credit facility. Truist is serving as administrative agent for the financing, while Wells Fargo is acting as collateral agent.
The Grape project is designed as a utility-scale renewable energy installation and is now under construction. It will consist of a 246.4 MWac solar photovoltaic array paired with 150 MWac of battery energy storage systems. The project is located within Westlands Solar Park in California’s San Joaquin Valley, a regional hub for large-scale solar development.
Permanent Power has executed a long-term power purchase agreement with an investment-grade, regulated energy service provider for the full output of Grape’s solar generation and battery storage capacity. Locking in a contracted offtake for both the solar and storage components provides revenue visibility for the project while aligning with growing demand for firm, renewable power.
According to Permanent Power, the Grape project is expected to support more than 400 construction jobs during the build-out phase. Once operational, the facility is projected to generate enough clean electricity to serve over 86,000 California homes each year, underscoring the scale of the installation and the contribution it is expected to make to the state’s decarbonization goals.
The financing structure, combining a construction-to-term loan with a tax credit transfer bridge loan and letter of credit facility, reflects the integration of tax credit monetization into large renewable energy capital stacks. With Truist and Wells Fargo in key agent roles, the transaction highlights continued commercial bank participation in financing utility-scale solar and storage projects.
