Southern California Edison, 15-year PPA

Avantus Secures $525 Million for 150 MW Aratina 2 Solar-Plus-Storage Project in California

Energy Storage News Solar + Storage Integration
Marin Holt
July 9, 2026
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5 minutes read

Construction financing: $525 million
Solar capacity: 150 MW
Battery storage: 452 MWh
Offtaker: Southern California Edison, 15-year PPA
Commercial operation: year-end 2026

Avantus closed more than $525 million in construction financing on July 9, 2026 for Aratina 2, a 150-megawatt solar array paired with 452 megawatt-hours of battery storage under construction in eastern Kern County, California. BBVA, CIBC, and Santander provided the package, which includes a tax-equity bridge and letters of credit, and the project is contracted to Southern California Edison under 15-year power purchase agreements. Avantus expects commercial operation by the end of 2026.

Aratina 2 is the second phase of the Aratina complex. Combined with Aratina 1, the site totals 350 MW of solar and 952 MWh of storage. The project is creating about 300 union construction jobs and will generate property-tax revenue for Kern County public services along with permanent operations and maintenance roles. Avantus keeps an ownership stake and the operator role, part of its move to an independent power producer targeting 5 GW online by 2030 from a development pipeline of 13 GW of solar and 44 GWh of storage across California, Nevada, and Arizona.

Critical Perspective

Avantus closed $525 million for 150 MW of solar paired with 452 MWh of storage, but that battery holds only about three hours at full output, short of the four-hour block California’s resource-adequacy rules count on. In the same Kern County, Terra-Gen’s Edwards and Sanborn complex already pairs its solar with more than 3,200 MWh of storage, so Aratina 2’s evening contribution is modest against what neighboring projects deliver. Financing closes are not connections: Primergy’s Gemini project in Nevada closed its debt package years before it reached full operation in 2024, and interconnection and equipment delays are why contracted solar-plus-storage routinely slips past its target date. If the year-end 2026 connection slips, how much of that Southern California Edison capacity value does a three-hour battery actually capture during the post-sunset ramp?

Why It Matters

The 15-year Southern California Edison offtake turns midday solar into evening supply through the 452 MWh battery, adding firm capacity in a market where the evening ramp after sunset drives most of the reliability risk. Just as telling is the financing structure: a bank-led construction package from BBVA, CIBC, and Santander, rather than a single tax-equity investor, signals that lenders are comfortable underwriting contracted solar-plus-storage in the CAISO footprint. For a developer shifting from selling projects to owning them, closing at this scale keeps Aratina on track for a year-end connection into one of the tightest evening-peak grids in the country.