Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Enlight Renewable Energy fourth quarter and year-end 2023 financial results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during this session, you will need to press star one and one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Yonah Lefkovitz. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings conference call for Enlight Renewable Energy. Before beginning this call, I would like to draw participants' attention to the following.
Certain statements made on the call today, including but not limited to statements regarding business strategy and plans, our project portfolio, market opportunity, utility demand and potential growth, discussions with commercial counterparties and financing sources, pricing trends for materials, progress of company projects, including anticipated timing of related approvals and project completion and anticipated production delays, expected impact from various regulatory developments, completion of development, the potential impact of the current conflict in Israel on our operations and financial condition, and company actions designed to mitigate such impact, expected changes in Clēnera’s leadership and the company’s future financial and operational results and guidance, including revenue and Adjusted EBITDA, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of U.S. Federal securities law, which reflect management’s best judgment based on currently available information.
We reference certain project metrics in this earnings call, and additional information about such metrics can be found in our earnings release. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ from our expectations. Please refer to our 2022 annual report, filed with the SEC on March 30th, 2023, and other filings for more information on the specific factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements. Although we believe these expectations are reasonable, we undertake no obligation to revise any statements to reflect changes that occur after this call. Additionally, non-IFRS financial measures may be discussed on the call. These non-IFRS measures should be considered in addition to, and not as a substitute for, or in isolation from, our results prepared in accordance with IFRS.
Reconciliations to the most directly comparable IFRS financial measures are available in the earnings release and the earnings presentation for today's earnings call, which are posted on our investor relations webpage. With me this morning are Gilad Yavetz, CEO and co-founder of Enlight, Nir Yehuda, CFO of Enlight, Jason Ellsworth, CEO and co-founder of Clēnera, and Adam Pishl, CEO and co-founder of Clēnera. Gilad will provide some opening remarks and will then turn the call over to Jason and Adam for a review of our U.S. activity, and then to Nir for our review of our fourth quarter and full year results. Our executive team will then be available to answer your questions.
Thank you all for joining us today for Enlight's fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings call. In 2023, we continued to deliver on the Enlight story: above-market growth and above-market product returns. Moreover, we built the necessary foundation to take the next major step in 2024 and beyond. Enlight is now on the cusp of another major expansion as we begin the construction of several flagship solar and storage projects, particularly in the United States. I will first review the important achievements we've made in 2023, and will then describe our outlook into 2024 and beyond. Let's start with our strong full year 2023 financial results. Revenue for the whole of 2023 grew 33% over last year to $256 million.
Net income grew 157% to $98 million, and adjusted EBITDA grew 45% to $189 million annually. We also saw significant growth in our operating cash flow, which reached $150 million for the full year, an increase of 66% over 2022. In the fourth quarter, revenue grew 21% over last year to $74 million. Net income grew 48% to $16 million, and adjusted EBITDA grew 8% to $47 million. Overall, we delivered strong growth and profitability in 2023, even amidst a challenging macroeconomic backdrop. Driving the growth in our financial parameters was our project additions. In 2023, we connected over 480 MW across Israel, Europe, and the U.S., a growth of 33%.
This included Genesis Wind in Israel and Apex Solar in the U.S., while we also ramped up production at Björnberget in Sweden. As of today, we have 1.9 gigawatts of operational generation, as well as our first operational storage project with a capacity of 277 MWh. This result testifies to the strength and resilience of Enlight geography and technology diversification, combined with our developer plus IPP model. As a result, we benefit from recurring and growing income from our IPP, while our greenfield development activity fuels continuous growth at high returns. In 2023, we also saw a rapidly improving outlook for electricity demand. Electricity demand is rising in the U.S. for the first time in two decades, driving increased PPA pricing. Moreover, equipment costs have come down significantly, while the cost of finance is now in decline.
As a result, we expect to see continued demand for our projects at attractive returns. We demonstrated that in 2023, by successfully amended PPA pricing upwards from over 1.8 GW by an average of 25%, while signing new PPAs at even higher levels. Our pipeline of large-scale projects and competitive access to the grid allows us to continue to capitalize on the need for electricity with favorable prices. At the same time, panel and battery pricing fell considerably throughout the year. These trends have continued to consolidate in the fourth quarter. Higher PPA pricing and lower construction costs contributed to the improving project returns, which we expect to reach 10% on an unlevered basis for project reaching COD between 2024 and 2026. On top of that, in the fourth quarter, we saw nearly 70 basis points decline in interest rates.
When overlaying this with our unlevered project returns of 10%, we can generate average levered equity IRR in the mid to high tens, and in some cases, even higher. In 2023, we also continued to convert additions to our mature portfolio. Our greenfield development teams converted 871 MW and 2.7 GWh from our large development pipeline into mature projects. The additions included several major flagship projects in the United States, such as Roadrunner and Country Acres, which will commence construction in 2024. Finally, substantial financing is required to sustain and accelerate such growth, and in 2023, we successfully raised capital from a diverse set of sources. Given the constrained financing environment, this constitutes a notable achievement.
We raised $271 million in equity through an IPO on the NASDAQ at the start of the year and secured over $500 million in project finance and tax equity. Also important was the completion of our first asset sell-down in the U.S. and some sell-downs in Israel, totaling $90 million. While this initial disposals were small, this set the precedent for sell-downs to become an increasingly important source of funds in the future. To sum up, 2023 was a year in which Enlight delivered on its above-market growth and above-market returns forward. We secured various sources of financing, expanded the portfolio of projects to be built in the near term, and improved future project returns, all amidst a challenging macro and economic environment. Looking to 2024, we forecast further revenue growth and profitability.
We expect to add 543 megawatts of generation and 1.6 gigawatt hours of energy storage to our operational assets, among them, Atrisco project in the U.S. This represents our major move into energy storage with 580% growth at this segment. Moreover, we expect to commence construction on upwards of 1 gigawatt and 2.9 gigawatt hours of capacity in 2024, which reflects an over 55% increase on our current operational generation and 1,040 increase on our operational storage. This includes major projects such as Roadrunner, Country Acres, and Quail Ranch in the U.S., Gercama Hybrid in Spain, and several standalone storage projects in Israel and Italy.
In total, including Atrisco, these projects are expected to generate $307 million in revenues and $221 million in EBITDA in their first full year of operation. This is a massive step in the growth of the company, and therefore, execution on this project is our highest priority. These new builds will also help diversify Enlight's current geographical mix, introducing significant U.S. exposure while adding a major element of solar and storage to our technological mix, which is largely wind today. In 2024, we also expect to convert more of our large development pipeline into mature projects. Examples of this include our unique portfolio of solar and storage in PJM in the U.S., totaling 1.4 GW and 2.2 GWh of storage.
These projects, which benefit from exceedingly lower interconnection costs, have been moved to PJM's interconnection fast track, significantly easing their path to further development. In addition, we have additional large-scale solar and storage projects across the Western U.S. and wind projects in Europe that are approaching maturity.... The depth and breadth of our development pipeline is a strategic resource for Enlight. With 15 GW and 25 GWh of storage of potential, it ensures that we maintain a sizable buffer of imminently available mature projects on which we can work. Finally, it is important for me to stress that with the capital we raised last year, we have all the equity needed to fund 2024's activities. We will have to secure significant project finance commitments. However, the success in raising project finance during 2023 provides us with confidence that we will achieve this.
With macroeconomic conditions now more settled, our all-in interest rate for project finance now stands at 5.25%-5.75%. In 2024, we also plan to execute large asset sell downs, either of minority or majority stakes in the U.S. project, further underpinning the company's financial position. As Enlight continues to grow, our ability to self-finance also gathers steam. A larger IPP provides more operating cash flow, while additional conversion of projects increases the potential for sell downs. Both these represent sources of funds for future growth and when combined with our extensive pipeline of development projects, provide a path for growth without the need for external capital.
Turning to our 2024 guidance, we expect revenues between $335 million and $360 million, 36% higher than in 2023 at the midpoint, and Adjusted EBITDA between $235 million and $255 million, 30% above that of 2023 at the midpoint. Growth continues to be robust as we add new projects to our operational portfolio. Nir will describe in detail the assumptions that underlie this guidance later in the call. To tie it all together, in 2024, Enlight will harness its resources to grow considerably in all markets, but especially in the U.S. And as before, we aim to continue delivering on our twofold objective: above-market growth and above-market product returns.
Before handing the call over to Jason for his remarks, I'd like to comment on the Clēnera leadership transition we announced in January. After more than 10 years as CEO of Clēnera, Jason accepted a call from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to serve as a full-time mission president in Chile. He will leave his post with Clēnera at the end of June. Clēnera's COO and co-founder, Adam Pishl, will assume the role of CEO. Adam is an amazing leader and responsible for building Clēnera beside Jason during the last 10 years. We anticipate a smooth transition over the next six months as Adam and the amazing Clēnera leadership team remain and continue to move the company and its projects forward. I thank Jason for his leadership and expertise in creating and cultivating Clēnera.
His vision, leadership, and tireless work, coupled with his talented and dedicated, propelled the company to make a huge impact on the U.S. renewable market. Adam has always been a big part of Clēnera's success, and I am fully confident in his skills, experience, and leadership, and his ability to take Clēnera to the next level, which we at Enlight shall continue to support and accelerate. Jason?
Thank you, Gilad. I will certainly miss working with you and the rest of our amazing team at Enlight and Clēnera. Regarding our U.S. business, 2023 was foundational, and in 2024, we expect to launch from that foundation into a period of significant growth. During 2023, we successfully completed Apex Solar, 106 MW project located outside Dillon, Montana. Apex was the first project completed together by Enlight and Clēnera in the U.S. We also made progress toward completing our Atrisco Solar project in New Mexico. As of today, equipment supporting the full 364 MW is installed, and work is underway to finalize mechanical completion. Further, during the fourth quarter, we closed tax equity and debt financing on Atrisco Solar, raising $300 million of construction and term debt and $108 million and $98 million in PTC tax equity.
The transaction, which released $204 million of excess equity back to Enlight's balance sheet, demonstrated our continued access to competitive project financing, including tax equity. We have reached a mutual resolution of a supplier matter on the 1.2 GWh battery storage portion of Atrisco, and now expect the solar site will reach COD in third quarter of 2024, and the storage installation in fourth quarter of 2024. Our overall project portfolio in the U.S. advanced steadily in 2023, with approximately 10 GW through System Impact Study. We signed PPAs on 806 MW and 2 GWh that will enter construction in 2024. This includes Country Acres, a 392 MW and 688 MWh project delivering to Sacramento Municipal Utility District in California....
Roadrunner, a 294 MW and 940 MWh facility contracted with ATCO in Arizona, and Quail Ranch, a 120 MW and 400 MWh project that represents the second phase of our Atrisco facility in New Mexico and delivers to PNM. The full 806 MW and 2 GWh will start construction during 2024, launching a new phase of Clēnera's expansion and growth in the U.S. In addition to advancing and constructing projects in the U.S., we improved returns by amending many of our existing PPAs. Over the past 18 months, our team successfully raised prices by an average of 25% on contracts covering 1.8 GW of capacity. Strong utility relationships and large-sized projects that are deliverable in the near term made these pricing negotiations possible.
And as Gilad mentioned, we are also experiencing economic tailwinds by way of falling equipment prices. Since the beginning of 2023, we've seen our solar panel prices drop by approximately 25% and battery prices by more than 30%. We continue to focus on converting our early-stage development projects into mature projects. As an example, in PJM, we are advancing a portfolio of projects totaling 1.4 GW and 2.2 GWh capacity that have negligible interconnection costs. Prices in the regions where these projects are being developed are high due to a growing appetite for renewable energy and limited availability of feasible interconnections. With final interconnection agreements expected by the end of 2024, we anticipate achieving attractive PPA terms on these assets. In the Western U.S., we continue to see significant utility demand for our solar and storage projects.
With power demand continuously on the rise, our roughly 10 GW portfolio of developing and mature projects, all with advanced interconnection, puts us in prime position to meet rising demand with attractively priced generation. Finally, as previously announced, I will be stepping down from my position as Clēnera's CEO at the end of June. Adam Pishl, Clēnera's co-founder and current COO, will take my place. I'm supremely grateful for the years I've had to work with Gilad, Adam, and the Clēnera and Enlight teams. The company is an industry leader because the organization and its partners are comprised of what I consider to be the most dedicated, talented, and genuinely good people in the business. Both Gilad and Adam are dear friends and trusted leaders. I'm excited to see all the great projects and exciting developments they deliver in coming years.
Now I'll let Adam Pishl introduce himself and add some comments.
Thank you, Jason. Leading alongside Jason for nearly two decades has been an incredible journey. Together, we have built three renewable energy companies, developed hundreds of solar projects, and most importantly, have built an incredible team of professionals who are now leading Clēnera into its greatest period of growth. While execution is our highest priority for 2024, Enlight and Clēnera continue to invest in our growing development portfolio that will take us through the next decade and beyond. I am passionate about renewable energy, this incredible organization, and our dedicated team, and I'm excited about this expanded role. I am confident in our 2024 execution plan and look forward to sharing more of this developing growth story during future earnings calls. Thank you, and I'll now turn the call over to Nir.
Thank you, Adam. In the fourth quarter of 2023, the company's revenue increased to $74 million, up from $61 million last year, a growth rate of 21% year-over-year. Growth was mainly driven by new operational projects compared to last year, while being offset by a decline in revenue caused by much lower electricity prices in Spain relative to the prices observed in the same quarter last year. Since the fourth quarter of last year, projects in the U.S., Hungary, and Israel started selling electricity. The most important of this is Genesis Wind, which contributed $9 million to revenue. In addition, Beolen, which barely sold power in 2022, contributed $6 million in this quarter. Gecama generated revenue approximately $14 million in revenues.
However, its contribution fell 36% year-over-year due to much lower Spanish power prices compared to Q4 2022 and relative to expected prices in Q4 2023. We sold power in Spain at an average price of EUR 50 per MW this quarter versus EUR 115 per MW in the same period last year. In addition, we were impacted by the slower than expected ramp-up in production at Genesis Wind and the Israel cluster. Fourth quarter net income increased to $16 million, a growth rate of 48% year-over-year.
Three non-cash items this quarter: a mark-to-market loss related to interest rate hedges on the financial close process at a pre-cost storage of $8 million, gains related to the reduction in expected earnout payments linked to the acquisition of Clean Air of $12 million, and a loss of $5 million due to the impact of Israeli shekel volatility on foreign currency liabilities. These figures are all net of tax. In the fourth quarter of 2023, the company Adjusted EBITDA grew by 8% to $47 million, compared to $43 million for the same period in 2022. Aside from the positive factor which affected our revenues growth, the year-over-year decline in revenues at Gecama, as well as slower than expected ramp-up at project in Israel, and $3 million increase in overhead, resulted in lower profit margin and slower growth in Adjusted EBITDA year-over-year.
We recorded $2 million as final payment recognized from the sell-down of Faraday, completed last quarter. Looking to our balance sheet, Enlight completed a large financing deal during this quarter, reaching the closing of both Atrisco Solar in the U.S. and our solar plus storage project in Israel. This raised a combined $511 million in project finance, from which $325 million of excess equity capital will be cycled back to Enlight. This transaction strengthened our balance sheet and reinforced the financial footing needed to deliver the growth of our business in 2024. To reiterate, no new equity capital is needed to deliver on our plans for this year. As of the date of today's report, we have $260 million of revolving credit facility at several Israeli banks, none of which has been drawn.
This is $90 million above what we reported in our Q3 2023 results. Moving to 2024 guidance. We expect annual revenues between $335 million-$360 million, with adjusted EBITDA between $235 million-$255 million. Of our total forecasted revenues, 40% are expected to be denominated in Israeli shekel, 55% euro, and 5% in US dollar. Noting our last exposure to the shekel and the current high degree of volatility in this currency, our guidance is predicated on the average annual exchange rate assumption of 3.8 shekel to the dollar and 1.05 euros to the dollar, which are lower than the current level. In addition, 90% of our 2024 generation output will be sold at fixed price, either through hedges or PPA.
Our guidance reflects annual growth of 36% and 30% at the midpoint compared to 2023 respectively, demonstrating our accelerated growth path in 2024 and the year there. I will now turn it over to the operator for questions.
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. We will take our first question. Your first question comes from the line of Justin Clare from Roth MKM. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Yeah, hello. Thanks for taking our questions. So first off here, you did mention plans to execute larger asset sell downs in 2024. Was wondering if you could give us a sense for the possible magnitude of those sell downs, how much equity capital you might be looking to raise, and what would be needed to support your 2025 development? And then, you know, the projects in the U.S., Quail Ranch, Roadrunner, Country Acres, are those projects that you're looking at for potentially selling minority interests?
Hi, thank you very much for the question, Justin. So, first on the sell down. So yes, as you said, part of our strategy is to perform some sell downs on our very large portfolio that is maturing next year. So we intend to construct and hold the main project that we are going to construct next year, Country Acres, Roadrunner, Quail Ranch, and the other project in Europe and Israel, but there is a potential for additional large sell downs. Currently, in the current guidance that we provided to the market, we assumed total sell downs of $15 million, but of course, the potential can be higher.
It's important to say, based on your second question, is that we are already fully funded in terms of the equity ticket that we need to invest for all the growth that we are going to construct next year. So we are talking about roughly 900 MW of new project and 2.7 GWh of new storage project. All are fully funded, and we do not have to perform any sell downs or any capital raise or debt raise in terms of the corporate, in order to raise the equity. It is already in the company. So the effort in terms of finance will be more on the construction debt and the tax equity side, so project finance.
Got it. Okay, very helpful. And then you did secure a large number of PPA amendments in 2023. Was wondering what we could expect going forward here. Are there additional possible amendments for PPAs for any of your projects that you're developing here? And then also just wondering on the general trend, we've seen a decline in module prices, battery prices. What are you seeing in terms of the PPA trend? Has that started to level off or potentially decline, or is demand so high that things are potentially moving even higher here?
Yeah. So I can start with the answer, and then Jason, you can compliment me on the U.S. market, if you like. So basically, what we are seeing overall in the different markets, but especially in the U.S., is that the PPA price curves are continuing to rise, although natural gas prices have already normalized. This is because we see, for the first time in two decades, a rise for the demand of electricity in the U.S. market. We believe these are very positive conditions that will continue to fuel our growth in the coming years. Now that we have amended the majority of our PPAs pre-construction, we believe that the next PPA that we are going to sign are going to be new PPAs.
I would say materially, but the level of pricing in the new PPAs that we have signed recently and we expect to sign in next year, we expect to maintain the higher level than in the past of around 25%. So again, reflecting a higher level of electricity pricing and higher demand for electricity in the U.S. What we see in Europe is that electricity prices are continuing to normalize based on the, you know, historical peaks that were in the last two years. But still, as we said in previous discussions, the new norm of electricity prices after the decline is still very high, comparing our levelized cost of electricity in our project in wind or solar in Europe, and therefore, the returns are very high.
So we expect electricity prices in Europe to continue and normalize on the level of EUR 50-60, and this level is still a high level that reflects very good return for our project. Jason, if you want to compliment me on the U.S.,
You bet. Now, thanks, Justin. Great, great question. I think Gilad answered this very well. And we have a small number of PPAs that we are discussing potential price increases with. But as Gilad has noted, the emphasis is on the new pricing, and we are seeing steady growth on the heels of dramatic growth in terms of demand and strong PPA. Some of what is advantaging the company is our interconnection position where we have projects, roughly 10 GW through System Impact Study, projects that are advanced and mature and ready to deliver to utility where queues are clogged up and projects are behind schedule with competing resources and therefore giving us the opportunity to deliver at strong pricing.
We see long-term that this steady increase in demand here in the U.S., along with a limited supply capacity, is driving prices incrementally higher year-over-year. So that's expected for the long term, and we're experiencing that on the ground.
Got it. Okay. Very, very helpful. Maybe just one more. Curious on how your position's relative to securing the Domestic Content Adder in the U.S., whether it's for the solar portion of a project or the storage part of a project. You know, what's the timeframe that we should be thinking about in terms of when that adder could be secured?
Jason, would you like to take this?
Yes, I'll take it. No, it's another great question. So, each of these projects today is, when Gilad and Nir are speaking of the economics on these projects or project finance, none of those include domestic content adders as a basis for the economics. All of that is considered to be upside. We are working carefully along the path of confirming the good amount to have on a number of these projects, both in terms of storage as well as the overall PV side. Some of that does depend on the advances our suppliers make in terms of their production. And we are seeing that accelerate, but watching it carefully, and we're not getting out over our skis of our current there.
We're making certain that we're taking product from lines that are stable. The most important is making certain that we deliver on the projects on time, and that those projects are producing stably in the coming years. We are carefully pursuing domestic content, but doing it in a supportive way that supports the overall plan. Again, not included in our current forecast by way of rev to the forward EBITDA.
Just to-
Got it.
Justin, just to reiterate that, as a following to what Jason said, I think that we can now disclose that on Atrisco, we finally selected Tesla to be the battery supplier. And as Jason said, the assumption, the current assumption for the project still does not assume tax equity adder on the battery. However, we believe that there is a potential for that, we will see in the future. So this is some upside that we believe that might be unlocked in the future.
It's worth noting-
Got it.
It may be worth noting just quickly, as well, that we have been aggressive about capturing the community adder, Energy Community Adder, and have included that on a number of projects thus far. So that is nice upside to the numbers.
Right. Okay. Thanks for the time.
Thank you. We will take our next question. Please stand by. Your next question comes from the line of Mark Strouse from JP Morgan. Please go ahead, your line is open.
Great, thank you very much for taking our questions. I'd just like to start by thanking Jason for all of your help since prior to the IPO, and best of luck with your next chapter. Our questions, I think, just kind of maybe one multi-part question, if I can. The 4Q revenue shortfall, you mentioned kind of a slower ramp at Genesis Wind and the Israeli or the Israel cluster. Just checking, are those now fully ramped? And then on the next part, with the 2024 guide, we didn't notice any major project push outs, but the EBITDA guide is a little bit lower than what consensus expectations were. So just kind of seeing if you can bridge that gap between...
It sounds like asset sales might be part of that driver. Can you talk about any kind of conservatism that you're baking in, you know, project ramping or, you know, FX, you know, anything else that you think might be driving that? Thank you.
Yeah. Hi, Mark. Thank you very much for the question. So for, I would say just in general, in terms of, our guidance and, the general way we, we, we look at the market and the company right now, I would say that, you know, after 15 years and, founding the company, I think that the conditions that right now we see in the market and also for the company, are maybe the best condition we've seen. We are seeing a very nice and accelerated growth, but also based on scale and very high returns. So if you look on our presentation, you can see that the average unlevered return of our projects for the all next 3 years is around 10%, meaning that the levered return, the IRR, will be in the midst of, the teens or maybe higher.
I think this is a very good, I would say, a number, especially for the large scale that we are going to build. For the ones that we are entering into this year, and this is a large capacity of almost 1 GW of generation and almost 3 GWh of energy storage, so we are talking about even a higher IRR. So first, yes, there was some shortfall in the fourth quarter, but we still grew 40% on average between the EBITDA and the revenue, and we are going to grow 35% next year. I think this kind of continuous growth will continue based on high returns, and based on that, we are very positive. On the EBITDA, there is no particular reason why the EBITDA is 30%. There is no trend.
I would just like to point out that currently, a big portion of our revenue mix is coming from the wind projects in Europe that are partially based on merchant price forecasting and on a tax mechanism that we include in our cost of sales. So basically, it reflects the net price is reflected in the gross margin, but we see the gross price in the revenues and then the tax, you know, the price after tax in the EBITDA. So last year, since the electricity prices were dropped a little bit more rapidly, also the tax mechanism created a lower tax on the net electricity price that is reflected in our EBITDA.
You see that we were more or less, like, our forecast, or I think in the mid of the forecast, but on the revenues, it came a little bit short. So I think that in terms of the growth of the company in the next year, we still see a very, very accelerated growth based on, I think, returns. In terms of the projects that are coming to operation and ramping up, so I would say that in the large wind farms, and maybe also in solar, in, I think on the broad terms, across geographies, we still see some supply chain issues.
I think that the big suppliers, such as Siemens, General Electric, and other suppliers, are still struggling a little bit after the COVID-19 with their, their supply chain, and this caused our project performance to ramp up, I would say, in three or four quarters to the full capacity and availability, rather than three months or three to six months before. This is not affecting the overall return of the project, the multi-year return of the projects, that is still forecasted to be very high, so or according to plan. So, this is something that we will take into consideration in the project in the next few years until we see that supply chain is being, I would say, normalized across the geographies.
Very helpful. I'll take the rest offline. Thank you.
Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one and one on your telephone. We will take our next question. The question comes from the line of Maheep Mandal from Mizuho. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hi there. This is David Benjamin in for Maheep Mandal. I have a question on your strategy with tax equity transferability versus traditional tax equity. Can you talk a little bit about where you guys are now and where you see that trending over the next year?
Yosef, will refer to that. Thank you, Mahip.
Yeah. So thank you, David. What we're seeing in the market is the move towards traditional tax equity, with credits being transferred through the bank's transfer desks. So the banks will come in and monetize the accelerated depreciation, and some of the other attributes, and the cash flow, obviously, in the pre-flip period. But what they will look to do is syndicate the transfers to, you know, Fortune 500 customers who the bank services elsewhere. Now, what we think is important to emphasize is that the move towards the transfer market will also accelerate the path to construction finance.
While in the past, construction finance was predicated on full tax equity commitments, the ability for tax equity providers to use transfer and syndicate those credits will enable us to access construction capital earlier, and therefore reduce the peak equity that we need for projects. I think that's where this is headed, and the conversations we've had with the major banks.
And just as an addition, I would say that I believe because of the position of Enlight as a public company and its positioning in the market is such that we feel that once there is a bottleneck in tax equity in the market, players like Enlight get prioritized. So this is why we believe we were able to complete tax equity last year with Atrisco and based on favorable terms. In the future, I think that tax transferability will ease up a little bit the bottleneck, but still players like us will be able to play between the traditional structure and the transferability.
And it's important to say that once we sell down more assets and we generate more profits on the corporate level, we will be able to monetize these profits, in terms of depreciation, also in the tax transferability structure, and thus, I would say, create also a good alternative in terms of our tax structure versus the regular or traditional tax equity. So I think that we are positioned very well, in today in the market, to be able to select between the traditional structure and the new structure and be able, to execute on the project on time, based on that.
Great, thanks. That's very helpful. I'll take the rest offline.
Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star 1 and 1 on your telephone. We will take our next question. Your next question comes from the line of David Paz from Wolfe. Please go ahead, your line is open.
Thank you. Good morning. Couple quick questions. Just on the CO Bar interconnection issue, can you just... Sorry if you disclosed this already, but provide an update on the timing, and any further studies or anything else that's needed to achieve a 2026 COD?
Yeah. So what I can say is that there is no change in our assumption or focus for CO Bar. So we will start constructing CO Bar in 2025, and believe that we will reach COD by the end of 2026. And the growth that we forecast for 2024 and 2025 is not based on that. So this will only, I would say, support the additional growth that is needed for 2026 and, of course, following that year. So no change in our forecast right now on CO Bar.
Okay. And just for your other projects in the U.S., I think this interconnection issue was surprising, if I recall correctly. Are there any other projects where we should be watching, or you're waiting for any studies that could impact timing?
Yes. I think that, we can point out to very good news that we received in our PJM portfolio. As you know, majority of the portfolio in the U.S. comes from the west states, but, there were always areas of development in PJM and MISO. Recently, in the last quarter, we got very good, very positive, milestones, in PJM, five in this project, totaling more than 1 GW of generation and, and, around 2 GWh of storage, with five projects getting into the fast track in terms of the interconnection queue, and with network upgrades that are less than $5 million per project, which is a very, very good result for PJM. We believe that this-...
potential that is unlocking in a new market for us, opens up a lot of alternatives for us, either to go on and contract this project or maybe following our sell down strategy to use that because of their high valuation and perform sell downs to recycle equity into our growth in the West. So these are very, very good news that we got recently, and is reflected in our presentation in slide 14.
Pr- Yeah, that's great. And that actually was my last question related to that slide. Can you maybe just talk about the growth that you see beyond what you've laid out here? Are there other projects that are maybe in the advanced, I guess, the stage behind early stage? And in particular, just how are these arrangements, particularly with the data centers, you know, being, being-how are you-what do those look like in terms of the economics? Are you seeing? Do you directly contract with the, like, bilaterally with the data centers?
Yeah.
How do you, how do you provide the service? Thank you.
So David, and then Jason, feel free to chime in afterwards. I think on the data center side, whether the demand is direct from the data center businesses or through the utilities that service them, we see massive demand through Virginia and broader PJM, but particularly in the Virginia region, which as we know, is if not the biggest data center market in the world. The interconnection advantage that we've developed in PJM, particularly these projects in Virginia, gives us a unique opportunity to provide power to, you know, the AI data center, massive growth and need for power that we're seeing. And that's putting us in the driver's seat on terms and offtake. So whether that's ultimately sleeved through the utility or directly from the data center providers, we're in a very strong position on those projects.
In addition, there's some other projects outside of PJM in the West Coast. We've got another big major project in Arizona called Snowflake, which is another 1 GW interconnection. We've got a 1 GW interconnection in the Pacific Northwest, which is uniquely positioned to serve the big data center markets in the Northwest, you know, the Microsofts and Amazons of the world. So, you know, the portfolio is very well positioned, to echo Jason's comments at the beginning, to service the massive demand of electricity that we're seeing coming, particularly from the data center market, but also broadly across the U.S. in the coming years.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you.
Yosef, I would note that, as particularly in the West, we've been successful at maintaining a busbar PPA standard, and that's unique across our portfolio, and will continue to be a strength of the company, given our strong interconnection positions. So our sleeved, delivering the bus at the busbar and all sleeved through utilities to date, that's future, but we continue to find that as a effective way forward.
Great. Thank you so much.
Thank you. There are no further questions. I would like to hand back to Yosef Leshkovitz for closing remarks.
Thank you, everybody, for your time today. We will be at the Bank of America Power and Utilities Conference in New York early next week, and we look forward to seeing many of you there. Thank you.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.