Hybar supplier secures funds for solar installation

A newly created company called Green & Clean Power LLC (GCP) has raised funds to construct 105-megawatt solar installation and a 160 megawatt-hour battery energy storage system that will power the neighboring Hybar LLC recycled-content steel mill being built in Osceola, Arkansas.

GCP has raised approximately $300 million of debt and equity financing to finance the project, which is being installed on about 500 acres of land near the under construction steel rebar mill. Germany-based KfW IPEX-Bank provided approximately $165 million in construction debt financing with United Kingdom-based Aurora Energy Research serving as a market advisor. The Arkansas Teacher Retirement System (ATRS), Little Rock, Arkansas, provided an additional $100 million in a takeout financing commitment.

“Sustainable steelmaking continues to make significant impacts on the state of Arkansas," ATRS Executive Director Mark White says. "We are pleased to support this newest entity knowing it benefits our state, it benefits our environment, and, most of all, it will benefit our members.”

The Osceola installation already is under construction and GCP expects the project to be completed by fall of 2025.

“The sustainable production and recycling of steel plays a key role in global decarbonization,” says Dr. Velibor Marjanovic, a member of the management board of KfW IPEX-Bank. “After providing financing for the Hybar rebar mill in 2023, we’re delighted to now support the clean power supply for this flagship project. With this financing, we again underline our commitment to projects that contribute to the worldwide transformation towards a carbon-neutral future.”

GCP says initially it will supply behind-the-meter renewable electrical energy to Hybar, its sister company. Hybar is anticipated to begin producing recycled-content steel rebar in the summer of 2025.

States GCP, “The combination of 100 percent recycled raw materials, coupled with its access to high-volume renewable power, will position Hybar as the steel producer with one of the lowest, if not the lowest, scope one and scope two emissions in the world," GCP says.

Also involved in the project tied to a comprehensive, lump-sum engineer, procure and construct (EPC) agreement is Arizona-based Depcom Power Inc., an EPC company in the solar and battery project space. Depcom is part of the Koch Engineered Solutions business unit of Wichita, Kansas-based Koch IP Holdings LLC. A separate Koch business unit, Koch Minerals & Trading, is an investor in the Hybar mill.

GCP expects to supply Hybar with approximately 40 percent of the mill’s total annual power consumption when both entities are brought online next year, and says the power supplied to Hybar by GCP will augment Hybar’s existing power supply agreement with Entergy Arkansas for the supply of grid power.

“Unlike other industrial businesses which seek to invest in renewable power generation projects hundreds of miles away from their closest operation as a means of carbon offsetting, GCP’s production of solar and renewable-stored energy will be directly connected to Hybar,” says Ari Levy, a partner at Hybar investor Global Principal Partners and chief financial officer of both GCP and Hybar.