CIP reaches financial close on its first solar-plus-storage project in Mexico

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners has reached financial close on La Esperanza Solar, its first project in Mexico to start construction. The development combines a 420MW photovoltaic plant with battery storage, Net Zero Investor reports. The storage component is sized at 150MW.

The debt package amounts to roughly $510 million, provided by BNP Paribas, J.P. Morgan, Natixis, Santander and Scotiabank. CIP's Growth Markets Fund II is co-investing in the equity alongside Profuturo, a Mexican retirement fund provider. Mexico's energy ministry has made La Esperanza a priority project. The plant sells power under a PPA with CFE Calificados. Commercial operations are due in 2028. The financing disclosure does not break out total project cost or each lender's commitment.

Peter Halmø, CIP's managing director and head of Latin America, called the financial close 'a major milestone for GMF II and our team.' Ole Kjems Sørensen, a CIP partner, said La Esperanza 'reflects the long-term strategy of CIP's Growth Markets funds investing in fast-growing, emerging economies such as Mexico.' Halmø noted that CIP has been active in Mexico for several years. La Esperanza, he said, is the first project there to start construction.

La Esperanza is an investment of Growth Markets Fund II. The fund closed in August at $3 billion, according to ESG Capital Daily. That is nearly three times the size of its predecessor. It already had $1.6 billion committed at closing. The five-bank debt package suggests commercial lenders are comfortable underwriting Mexican solar-plus-storage when a CFE-backed PPA anchors revenue. With $1.4 billion still to deploy, La Esperanza is an early marker for how the fund will put emerging-market capital to work.

Once operations begin in 2028, the battery becomes the project's open question. The 150MW storage unit will need to dispatch against CFE's system needs, and it remains to be seen whether the revenue model holds. For now, the financial close gives CIP a flag in Mexico and lenders a new reference point for solar-plus-storage there.