BrightNight and Cordelio Power have raised $414 million from five banks to finish building Box Canyon, a 300 MW solar project in Pinal County, Arizona. Construction had already been running for six months when the loan was announced. The project is a small slice of a much larger portfolio. The question is how much of the build the debt actually covers.
Key takeaways
- BrightNight and Cordelio Power announced on 13 May 2024 a $414 million credit facility from a consortium of banks for the construction of the 300 MW Box Canyon solar project in Pinal County, Arizona.
- Zions Bancorporation acted as administrative agent and coordinating lead arranger, joined by National Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Canada, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.
- Construction of Box Canyon began in November 2023, with commercial operation expected in the first half of 2025, and the project is expected to power about 77,000 Arizona homes a year.
- The $414 million facility works out at about $1.38 million per MW of Box Canyon's 300 MW capacity.
- Box Canyon is part of a 2 GW Arizona portfolio owned by BrightNight and Cordelio Power, within BrightNight's wider 37 GW renewable power portfolio.
Who is lending, and what role does each bank play?
Zions Bancorporation leads the deal, and four other banks share the lending. A syndicated credit facility is a loan provided by a group of banks under one set of terms, so that no single lender carries the whole exposure.
Zions holds two roles. As coordinating lead arranger, it structured the loan and brought the other lenders in. As administrative agent, it runs the facility day to day, collecting payments and passing them to the other banks. The rest of the group is National Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Canada, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.
Three of the five lenders are Canadian banks. Cordelio Power, BrightNight's partner on the Arizona portfolio, owns the assets alongside it, and the facility is raised at project level for Box Canyon alone.
Why raise construction debt six months into the build?
Leap does not record why the timing fell this way, but a common pattern is to start a project on sponsor money and bring in banks once the riskiest early phase has passed. Box Canyon broke ground in November 2023. The bank facility was announced in May 2024, with operation targeted for the first half of 2025.
By the time lenders committed, the project had moved past early site works. That reduces the risk that construction stalls before it is properly under way, and it gives banks a clearer view of the remaining schedule. Leap records the asset as in construction at the date of the financing.
The use of proceeds is narrow. The funds go to the construction of the 300 MW Box Canyon project. They are not a portfolio facility of the kind BrightNight raised in January 2024, when it secured an $850 million credit facility for its wider US portfolio of solar, storage and integrated technologies.
How does $1.38 million per MW compare with other US solar loans?
It sits just below the larger single-project construction loans Leap records in the same year. Debt per MW is a rough measure of how much of a project's build cost the banks are financing. It depends on construction costs, on how much equity and tax credit funding the sponsors bring, and on how much contracted revenue backs the loan.
Two comparable 2024 deals show the range. Primergy's $588 million package for the 408 MW Ash Creek project in Texas, announced in March 2024, works out at about $1.44 million per MW. Greenbacker's roughly $951 million financing for the 674 MW Cider project in New York, announced in October 2024, works out at about $1.41 million per MW, although that package also covers acquisition and operation. Box Canyon, at $1.38 million per MW, is slightly lighter on debt than either.
Enerdatics records 97 US solar debt financings announced in 2024. Box Canyon's $414 million ranks 15th by size among them. The 14 larger deals include portfolio and corporate facilities as well as single-project loans, and several of the largest are not construction loans at all, such as government funding for manufacturing and grid transition.
What does the deal signal for Arizona solar?
The first signal is scale behind a single project. Box Canyon is 300 MW out of a 2 GW Arizona portfolio that BrightNight and Cordelio Power own together. If the remaining projects follow the same route, the pair will be returning to lenders repeatedly, which makes the terms set here a reference point for the rest.
The second signal is the lender mix. A US bank, Zions, leads, and Canadian and Japanese lenders fill out the group. A consortium of five is enough to carry $414 million for one plant, without the long lists of lenders seen on the largest 2024 solar packages.
The third signal is how project debt is sized. Box Canyon's loan works out slightly lower per MW than Primergy's Ash Creek loan in Texas, a gap that could reflect construction costs or how much of the build the sponsors fund through equity or tax credits. Other projects show how those layers interact, such as the tax credit sale alongside Matrix Renewables' Pleasant Valley loan in Idaho. Leap's Box Canyon record does not disclose a tax credit transfer or tax equity component.
Frequently asked questions
How large is the Box Canyon solar project and where is it? Box Canyon is a 300 MW utility-scale solar project in Pinal County, Arizona, expected to power about 77,000 homes a year.
Who arranged the $414 million Box Canyon financing? Zions Bancorporation was administrative agent and coordinating lead arranger, with National Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Canada, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce as lenders.
When is Box Canyon expected to start operating? Construction started in November 2023, and commercial operation was expected in the first half of 2025.
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