Hyperdrive
Banks Finally Start to Spend Big on Giant Batteries
Once reluctant to finance big projects, lenders now are taking another look.
A technician installs Tesla batteries at a energy storage facility near Longmont, Colo.
Photographer: Aaron Ontiveroz/Denver Post via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Big batteries have long been touted as the future of the electrical grid. But when entrepreneur David Cieminis sought financing for a storage project in California, a state desperate to wean itself off of fossil fuels, he couldn’t reel in a bank.
“A month or two ago, I wouldn’t have thought that they would have been interested,” says Cieminis, co-founder and chief commercial officer of Able Grid Energy Solutions. Like other battery startups, the company wound up relying on more expensive private equity for the project.