Atlas Renewable Closes US$3 Billion Refinancing Deal

Atlas Renewable Energy secured a US$3 billion refinancing backed by global lenders and Global Infrastructure Partners to support solar and energy storage assets across Latin America, including projects in Mexico. The transaction reflects continued international financing for large-scale renewable infrastructure and highlights Mexico’s evolving regulatory framework for battery energy storage and public-private project structures. The financing supports Atlas’ expanding Mexican portfolio — comprising operational solar plants contracted with the Federal Electricity Commission and a 2.5GW development pipeline — affecting investors, commercial and industrial energy buyers and the regional clean energy sector.

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Atlas Renewable Energy announced the completion of a corporate refinancing transaction valued at approximately US$3 billion, the largest refinancing for nonconventional renewable energy infrastructure in Latin America to date. The transaction was executed with support from the company’s sponsor, Global Infrastructure Partners, and involved several international financial institutions, including BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, MUFG Bank, Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking, and Santander Corporate & Investment Banking.

According to the company, the refinancing covers a portfolio of solar generation and energy storage assets primarily located in Chile, while also supporting projects in Brazil and Mexico. In total, the financing involved 26 law firms across 11 countries, reflecting the complexity and cross-border nature of the transaction.

Atlas said the refinancing will allow the company to optimize its capital structure, reduce financing costs across its regional portfolio, and establish a long-term platform to support continued investment in renewable energy infrastructure. “Achieving a refinancing of this magnitude represents a strong vote of confidence from global financial institutions in our brand and long-term strategy in the region,” said Carlos Barrera, co-founder and CEO, Atlas. “This refinancing also signals the company’s financial maturity and positions us to support the next phase of growth.”

Barrera added that the company has built a track record of disciplined project execution and governance while expanding renewable generation capacity across multiple markets. “With strong governance, disciplined execution and consistent growth, Atlas has become one of the largest independent renewable energy producers in Latin America and has demonstrated its ability to generate sustainable value across several markets over the past decade,” he said. “The commitment from our investors and banking partners reflects their confidence in the quality of our portfolio and the performance of our team.”

Atlas has focused on developing financing structures tailored to the complexities of evolving energy markets, including the integration of emerging technologies such as battery energy storage systems (BESS). The company said this approach has enabled it to structure large-scale financing solutions supporting solar generation and energy storage deployment across Latin America.

The transaction reflects continued confidence from international lenders in the region’s renewable energy sector, particularly in large-scale solar generation and battery storage projects. According to Juan Pablo Sáenz, Mexico country manager, Atlas, the Mexican government has played a key role in stimulating private investment by introducing long-term project structures such as staged investment mechanisms, tolling agreements and mixed ownership models, where the government holds 54% of a joint venture and private investors 46%.

“These partnerships allow us to implement innovative commercial structures,” Sáenz told MBN. “For example, the government can contribute either in-kind assets or equity, while the private sector can structure shareholder loans to finance the government’s participation, and projects can adopt build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) structures to transfer asset ownership at a certain point in time,” he said.

Atlas’ Mexico Portfolio

Atlas has two operational photovoltaic plants in Mexico: one in Campeche with a capacity of 445MWdc, and another in Hidalgo with 129MWdc. Both plants are fully contracted with the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE).

The company also maintains a 2.5GW greenfield project pipeline in Mexico, primarily focused on the southeast, central, western and northeastern regions of the country. The pipeline includes approximately 30% storage capacity, with project sizes ranging from 80MW plus storage to 250MW installations. In addition, some projects include 100% storage configurations, based on the 24/7 renewable energy model the company has implemented in Chile.

Atlas uses a variety of commercial structures, including financial power purchase agreements (PPAs), pay-as-produced models, tiered PPAs (with baseload and profile guarantees), and build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) structures, with both private offtakers and CFE.

A core component of the company’s business model is delivering 24/7 renewable energy while maximizing captured capacity and energy spreads. Through battery energy storage systems (BESS), Atlas helps commercial and industrial (C&I) offtakers decarbonize their operations by supplying renewable energy during peak demand hours, challenging the long-standing assumption that grid reliability requires fossil fuels such as natural gas.

The company is also developing behind-the-meter (BTM) solutions, allowing projects to avoid capacity charges and shift electricity demand to off-peak hours.

According to the company, solar-plus-storage projects and standalone BESS installations can provide rapid-response solutions to meet peak demand periods while achieving high capacity capture rates. These solutions have been supported by Mexico’s emerging regulatory framework for BESS, which grants firm capacity designation to storage projects capable of delivering electricity for more than three hours.