Akaysha Energy Locks In A$1.75 Billion to Scale Australian Battery Pipeline

Australian battery storage developer Akaysha Energy has secured a A$1.75 billion (USD$1.23 billion) financing facility, refinancing project-level debt across four battery energy storage systems and unlocking capital for a development pipeline it sizes at roughly 6 GW / 25 GWh across the National Electricity Market.

The Melbourne-based company, founded in 2021, announced the transaction as a portfolio-level refinancing. It consolidates existing debt on four assets — Brendale, Orana, Ulinda Park and Elaine — into a single structure. Three of the four, Ulinda Park, Brendale and Orana, currently operate. Elaine began construction in October 2025 and is scheduled for completion in the second half of 2027.

BlackRock acquired Akaysha in 2022 through its Climate Infrastructure business, part of BlackRock Real Assets. The deal marked the strategy's first battery storage investment in the Asia-Pacific region and gave the developer an institutional owner with a stated mandate to scale storage platforms.

How the financing is structured

The facility breaks into three tranches with terms of five, seven and ten years. Akaysha paired these with revolving liquidity and contingent instrument facilities. The company says the structure buys flexibility as it deploys capital across its Australian pipeline, where projects at varying stages of development compete for funding.

Andrew Wegman, Managing Director and Chief Financial & Investment Officer of Akaysha Energy, said: "As well as refinancing our existing operating and construction assets, this portfolio-level facility gives us the flexibility to accelerate our next wave of projects while we continue deploying capital where we see the strongest opportunities across the pipeline."

Eleven banks joined the consortium backing the deal: ANZ, BNP Paribas, Bank of China, CIBC, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Deutsche Bank, DNB, ING, Mizuho, MUFG and Rabobank. Rachel Chia, Head of Project Finance, APAC at Deutsche Bank, said: "We are delighted to support this transaction, drawing on our project finance expertise to bring operational and construction-stage assets into one structure that meets the needs of a growing battery storage portfolio."

Why grid-scale storage is drawing this capital

Battery energy storage systems address a structural problem in the Australian grid: wind and solar generation is intermittent, while demand runs around the clock. That imbalance is widening as electrified transport and AI computing add load. Storage lets grids absorb renewable output when it exceeds demand and release it when generation falls short, converting variable supply into dispatchable capacity.

Akaysha develops, owns and operates these systems to support renewable integration and improve grid reliability. Its operational assets — Brendale, Orana and Ulinda Park — already feed the National Electricity Market, the grid serving eastern and southern Australia.

What does this change for the pipeline?

The refinancing moves Akaysha from project-by-project borrowing, in which each asset carries its own debt, to a single portfolio structure. For a developer with roughly 6 GW / 25 GWh of prospective projects, that shift matters in sequencing terms: capital freed from refinanced operating assets can flow into new construction without negotiating standalone financing each time.

It also signals lender appetite for construction-stage battery risk at portfolio scale. Eleven institutions, spanning Australian, European, Canadian and Japanese banks, committed to a structure that mixes operational revenue with the build-out risk of Elaine, due in the second half of 2027.

The next milestones that decide the pace of this build-out are concrete: financial close and construction start on the next tranche of the 6 GW pipeline, and delivery of Elaine by its 2027 target. Each new project that reaches commissioning will expand the collateral base under the portfolio facility, deepening the funding loop Akaysha has now established.