Finance giant BlackRock in 11GW US battery storage swoop with Jupiter Power deal

A fund managed by investment giant BlackRock has agreed to acquire Jupiter Power, a leading independent US operator and developer of standalone utility scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) that claims to have more than 11GW of projects under development.

Financial terms were not made public with the transaction expected to close later this year, according to sellers EnCap Energy Transition Fund I and co-investment partners Mercuria Energy and Yorktown Partners. EnCap Investments is based in Austin, Texas, Mercuria in Geneva, and Yorktown in New York.

“Acquisition of Jupiter’s uniquely capable energy storage platform by BlackRock’s Diversified Infrastructure business is another sign that energy storage is maturing into an important new player in the electricity business with a critical role to play,” said Jupiter Power CEO Andy Bowman.

Founded in 2017, Jupiter has focused on proprietary data-driven approaches to large scale, stand-alone energy storage projects designed to meet the growing need for grid support and renewables integration driven by the energy transition.

S&P Global Market Intelligence in a research brief on Tuesday said the US utility-scale battery storage pipeline “keep surging” with 46GW in planned additions between 2023 and 2025, up 15GW in June.

Standalone energy storage became eligible for a tax credit that covers 30% of a project’s capital investment in the federal climate law that took effect in August. Previously, the tax credit was limited to energy storage paired with solar energy.

Jupiter owns and operates a large storage fleet in Texas comprising 655MWh and has 340MWh of new projects in or near construction, including its first project in California.

In September, Jupiter closed a debt financing of its operating portfolio and announced a collaboration with Energy Vault Holdings to secure 2.4GWh of US content-qualified BESS for its 2024-2025 projects.

The projects are located across major US electric markets including California ISO, ERCOT in Texas, PJM Interconnection, MISO, and New York ISO, and are scheduled to reach commercial operations in 2024-25.