CIP closes $510 million financing for 750 MWh solar-plus-storage project in Mexico's Campeche state

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) reached financial close on 6 August 2026 on La Esperanza Solar, a 420 MWdc solar PV project paired with a 150 MW / 750 MWh battery energy storage system in the state of Campeche, on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula.^[1] Construction is already underway, with commercial operations targeted for 2028.

The project

The BESS is rated at 150 MW with five hours of duration, making it one of the largest battery storage systems in Mexico. The configuration - storing midday solar output for dispatch during evening peak demand - is a straightforward fit for the Yucatán Peninsula, where grid reliability has been a persistent constraint and electricity demand is rising.

Mexico's Ministry of Energy (SENER) has designated La Esperanza Solar a priority project under the country's binding national energy planning framework. The project is backed by a long-term power purchase agreement with CFE Calificados, the commercial branch of state utility Comisión Federal de Electricidad that serves large industrial and commercial customers.

The financing

Project debt totals approximately $510 million, provided by a five-bank consortium: BNP Paribas, JPMorgan Chase Bank, Natixis CIB, Santander, and Scotiabank. Equity comes from CIP's Growth Markets Fund II, with an expected co-investment from Profuturo, one of Mexico's leading pension fund administrators. The Profuturo participation is notable: domestic institutional capital alongside international infrastructure debt is an arrangement that has been harder to assemble in Latin American storage markets than in more mature regions.

The debt package was structured through GMF II, CIP's vehicle focused on energy infrastructure in fast-growing emerging economies. La Esperanza Solar is the fund's first Mexican investment to reach financial close.

Market context

Latin America's battery storage market has remained largely stuck at demonstration scale, with Chile the main exception - curtailment there passed 6 TWh in 2024, creating a commercial pull for co-located BESS that other markets in the region have not yet replicated. Mexico still lacks a comprehensive energy storage market mechanism and a regulatory framework specifically designed for storage, which makes the CFE Calificados PPA the critical revenue anchor here: without a merchant or capacity market to fall back on, a contracted offtake with the state utility is the only bankable structure available.

The project's SENER priority designation and close coordination with federal authorities also signals that the current administration is willing to facilitate large private storage investments within the CFE-centric framework that has governed the sector since the previous administration tightened state utility dominance.

What to watch

The 2028 commercial operations date means La Esperanza Solar will be one of the first large-scale BESS projects in Mexico to reach operation. Whether the financing structure - international bank debt, domestic pension equity, CFE offtake - becomes a template for subsequent projects will depend on how the regulatory environment for storage develops in the intervening period, and on whether CFE Calificados is willing to sign comparable agreements at scale elsewhere in the country.