Ashtrom Renewable Energy, the US-focused independent power producer and renewable energy subsidiary of Israel’s Ashtrom Group, has reached financial close on a $200 million bank financing facility with BHI — the US branch of Bank Hapoalim, Israel’s largest financial institution — for its El Patrimonio utility-scale solar project in Bexar County, Texas. Construction of the 150 MWac facility across its 867-acre site southwest of San Antonio began in 2025, and the project is on track to reach commercial operations in the second half of 2027. El Patrimonio marks Ashtrom’s second utility-scale solar project in Texas and a significant deepening of the company’s presence in the ERCOT market, backed by a 20-year power purchase agreement with CPS Energy and a concurrent production tax credit monetisation deal with a major US financial institution.

867 Acres in Bexar County: The Project and Its Physical Scope

El Patrimonio occupies 867 acres in Bexar County — the county seat of which is San Antonio — and will interconnect to the ERCOT grid via the 138 kV transmission system. At 150 MWac, the facility sits comfortably in the upper tier of utility-scale solar developments currently under construction in Texas, a state that has become one of the most active utility-scale solar markets in the world by virtue of its flat, sun-intensive terrain, deregulated ERCOT electricity market, and historically supportive permitting environment. When fully operational, El Patrimonio will generate enough clean electricity to power approximately 37,000 to 37,500 households annually — a volume that represents a meaningful contribution to the San Antonio metropolitan area’s electricity consumption — and will reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 194,000 tonnes, equivalent to removing tens of thousands of passenger vehicles from the road each year.

Project Fact Sheet: El Patrimonio Solar Project

Project Name: El Patrimonio Solar Facility

Location: Bexar County, Texas, USA (near San Antonio, southwest of the city)

Site Area: ~867 acres

Nameplate Capacity: ~150 MWac (megawatts alternating current)

Grid Interconnection: ERCOT 138 kV transmission system

Construction Start: 2025

Target Commercial Operations Date (COD): Second half of 2027

Annual Households Served: ~37,000–37,500

Annual CO₂ Emissions Reduction: ~194,000 tonnes

Total Project Financing: ~$200 million (bank debt); additional production tax credit monetisation

Lender: BHI (US branch of Bank Hapoalim)

PPA: 20-year agreement with CPS Energy — ~70% of output + RECs at fixed price

Merchant Revenue: ~30% of output sold into the Texas open electricity market

PTC Monetisation: 10-year transferable tax credit sale to major US financial institution (unnamed)

Original Developer: OnPeak Power (sold to Ashtrom, 2021)

Significance: Ashtrom’s second Texas solar project; follows Tierra Bonita (306 MWac, Pecos County, COD December 2024)

Project Team: El Patrimonio Solar Project

Project Owner / Developer: Ashtrom Renewable Energy (subsidiary of Ashtrom Group, TASE: ASHG)

Ashtrom Renewable Energy CEO: Yitsik Mermelstein

Ashtrom Group CEO: Gil Gueron

Ashtrom Group Chairperson: Rami Nussbaum

Financing Bank: BHI (US branch of Bank Hapoalim, Israel)

BHI CEO: Gil Karni

Offtaker: CPS Energy (City Public Service, San Antonio, Texas) — Aa2 / Moody’s rated; largest municipally-owned US electric and natural gas provider

PTC Buyer: Major US financial institution (undisclosed)

Original Developer: OnPeak Power (project originated and sold to Ashtrom, 2021)

Engineering / Procurement / Construction (EPC): To be confirmed

The project was originally developed by OnPeak Power, a Texas-based full-cycle renewable energy developer with over 3.1 GW of utility-scale solar capacity across 12 US states. Ashtrom acquired El Patrimonio from OnPeak in 2021, inheriting the development rights, land agreements, and ERCOT interconnection queue position that OnPeak had established. The acquisition followed a similar transaction in which Ashtrom purchased Tierra Bonita — a 306 MWac solar project in Pecos County — from OnPeak in the same year. Tierra Bonita entered commercial operation in December 2024, making it Ashtrom’s first operational Texas project and providing the track record that underpins the confidence expressed by BHI and CPS Energy in El Patrimonio.

The Financing Architecture: BHI, Production Tax Credits, and CPS Energy’s 20-Year PPA

The $200 million construction and term loan from BHI is the central pillar of El Patrimonio’s project finance structure. BHI — operating as the US branch of Bank Hapoalim, Israel’s largest bank and one of the top twenty banks in the Middle East by assets — has been deliberately expanding its renewable energy lending book as a strategic priority, and the El Patrimonio deal reflects a broader institutional commitment by the bank to support clean energy project finance both with Israeli-affiliated developers and with a broader international cohort of independent power producers. BHI CEO Gil Karni described the bank’s strategy explicitly: building a team of specialist renewable energy bankers with deep sector expertise and clear capital capacity, oriented toward accelerating the clean energy transition through project lending.

Alongside the debt facility, Ashtrom simultaneously entered a ten-year production tax credit (PTC) monetisation agreement with a major, unnamed US financial institution — a tax equity structure that allows Ashtrom to sell the present value of the project’s future federal tax credits at financial close, providing additional capital certainty. This type of transferable tax credit deal, made possible under the provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, has become an increasingly standard component of US utility-scale solar project finance since 2023, filling a structural role previously occupied by traditional tax equity partnership structures. The revenue side of the project is secured by a 20-year power purchase agreement with CPS Energy — the municipally-owned utility serving San Antonio — which is rated Aa2 by Moody’s and holds the distinction of being the largest municipally-owned provider of both electric and natural gas services in the United States. Under the PPA, CPS Energy will purchase approximately 70 per cent of El Patrimonio’s total output, along with the associated Renewable Energy Certificates, at a predetermined fixed price for the full 20-year term. The remaining 30 per cent of generation will be sold into the Texas open electricity market.

Ashtrom Renewable Energy: Israeli Roots, American Ambition

Ashtrom Renewable Energy is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ashtrom Group (TASE: ASHG), one of Israel’s largest diversified infrastructure, construction, and real estate conglomerates, led by Group CEO Gil Gueron and chaired by Rami Nussbaum. While Ashtrom Group’s operations span residential construction, franchise infrastructure projects, commercial real estate in Israel and Europe, and industrial materials, its renewable energy division has been among its most aggressive growth vectors — particularly in the United States. Yitsik Mermelstein, CEO of Ashtrom Renewable Energy, has positioned the US business as a platform capable of operating at scale across the full project lifecycle: site origination, development, construction, financing, and long-term ownership.

Ashtrom’s US development pipeline currently stands at approximately 1.3 GWdc in solar and wind power generation projects, alongside approximately 600 MWh in battery storage capacity — a combined clean energy footprint that places it firmly in the mid-tier of globally active independent power producers operating in the US market. The company’s pipeline also includes additional Texas projects developed through its partnership with OnPeak, including Soles Rest (270 MWac, Pecos County) and Larrea Solar (225 MWac, Pecos County), both in development, and Rolling Sun (300 MWac solar with battery energy storage, Randall County), targeting construction commencement in 2027. El Patrimonio’s successful financial close and construction commencement strengthen the capital market credibility that Ashtrom will need to advance these successor projects through financing and into construction over the next several years. The company has also committed to community benefit programmes tied to El Patrimonio specifically — an annual scholarship fund, on-site field tours for local students, job fairs, and the construction of an outdoor classroom — as part of a deliberate effort to build durable local support in Bexar County for long-term project operations.

Texas Solar’s Financing Moment and the Broader ERCOT Clean Energy Build

El Patrimonio’s financial close arrives during one of the most active periods ever recorded for utility-scale solar construction in Texas and across the broader ERCOT market. Texas installed more utility-scale solar capacity in 2024 than any other US state — surpassing California on an annual basis for the first time — driven by a combination of ERCOT’s open interconnection market, abundant Class A solar resource across the state, and the continued offtake appetite of large municipal utilities, commercial and industrial buyers, and power traders seeking cost-competitive clean energy. The CPS Energy PPA structure underpinning El Patrimonio reflects a procurement approach that the San Antonio utility has pursued systematically: by 2023, CPS Energy had contracted more than 1,000 MW of new solar capacity from developers including Consolidated Edison Development (300 MW, 2022), Ashtrom’s Tierra Bonita (180 MW, 2022), and the El Patrimonio tranche — a portfolio-building strategy oriented toward meeting the utility’s ambitious carbon reduction goals while hedging power price risk through long-term fixed-price agreements. The depth of the Texas renewable market that makes these deals possible is illustrated by projects like Ørsted’s 518MW Helena Energy Center in Bee County — a hybrid wind and solar facility positioned on a primary transmission import path into the same San Antonio load centre, underscoring how the corridor has become one of the most competitive renewable energy development zones in the United States.

The broader national context is equally supportive. The Inflation Reduction Act’s transferable production tax credit mechanism — which Ashtrom has deployed in the El Patrimonio capital stack — has unlocked a new wave of project finance activity across the US solar sector since its passage in 2022, dramatically lowering the cost of tax equity and expanding the pool of capital available for mid-scale utility-scale solar projects. ERCOT’s sustained electricity price dynamics and the explosive growth in AI data centre and manufacturing power demand across Texas further underpin the revenue case for merchant solar generation in a market where the 30 per cent of El Patrimonio’s output sold at spot stands to benefit from sustained wholesale price strength over the project’s operating life.