Enlight Renewable Energy Lifts 2026 Guidance After Strong Q2, Positions for AI-Led Power Demand
Enlight Renewable Energy (NASDAQ: ENLT) delivered sharply higher second-quarter results and raised its full-year guidance, citing new operating projects, currency tailwinds, electricity trading in Israel and stronger power prices in Europe. The company said revenue and income rose 55% from a year earlier to $210 million in the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA climbed 67% to $160 million, net income reached $31 million compared with $6 million in the prior-year period, and operating cash flow increased 34% to $84 million.
Chief Executive Officer Adi Leviatan told analysts the update reflects the company’s ability to move its development pipeline into operating assets. He also pointed to rising electricity demand from artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure, industrial electrification and transportation as a supportive market trend for new renewable capacity.
Enlight now projects 2026 revenue and income of $790 million to $820 million, up from a previous range of $755 million to $785 million. It also raised adjusted EBITDA guidance to $565 million to $585 million, compared with the old $545 million to $565 million range. At the midpoint, the new outlook implies $805 million of revenue and income and $575 million of adjusted EBITDA. Management attributed the increase to first-half performance, higher projected revenue from electricity trading in Israel, and elevated power prices in Europe and Israel.
Chief Financial Officer Nir Yehuda said first-half revenue and income also increased 55%. Excluding the gain from the sale of interests in the Sunlight Cluster, first-half adjusted EBITDA rose about $99 million, or 53%, to $314 million. Operating cash flow for the first half rose 48% to $185 million. Underlying cash generation, before working capital swings, is running at roughly $100 million per quarter, according to Yehuda. Second-quarter adjusted EBITDA included a $17 million contribution from a follow-on sale of an additional 15% interest in the Sunlight Cluster.
Chief Corporate Development Officer Itay Banayan said the company does not expect any further sell-downs in the second half of 2026. He added that Enlight’s expanding electricity-trading activity in Israel adds revenue growth but carries a lower EBITDA margin.
Enlight’s total portfolio rose 4.6% quarter over quarter to 43.1 factored gigawatts, while the mature portfolio of operating, under-construction and pre-construction projects grew 6% to 12.3 factored gigawatts.
In the United States, Enlight closed the $2.6 billion financing for the CO Bar Complex in Arizona, its largest project financing to date. The five-phase complex is planned to include 1,211 megawatts of solar generation and 4,000 megawatt-hours of storage. Clēnera Chief Executive Officer Jared McKee said expected capital expenditures are about $3 billion. Construction started on the third phase during the quarter, adding 473 MW of photovoltaic generation to phases already under way. The final two storage phases, representing 3,176 MWh, are targeted for full mobilization in the fourth quarter. Initial commercial operation is targeted for the second half of 2027, with full commercial operation expected in the first half of 2028.
The company also signed its first U.S. commercial offtake agreement: a power purchase agreement with Google for 200 MW of solar power from the Solstice project in Oklahoma. McKee said the deal supports Google’s data-center activity in the region and represents Enlight’s first PPA in the Southwest Power Pool. Leviatan said Enlight expects to pursue more agreements with hyperscalers as it expands beyond its historical Western U.S. focus into markets such as the Southwest Power Pool and PJM. He also said Enlight may use generation from certain projects to support data centers it develops itself, rather than signing external PPAs.
For investment tax credit purposes, Enlight said it safe-harbored 17.9 factored gigawatts of U.S. capacity, exceeding its prior target. McKee said that represents an anticipated 52% of the company’s roughly 29-FGW U.S. portfolio. Management focused safe-harbor efforts on projects expected to reach commercial operation before 2030.
In Europe, Enlight expanded its battery-storage position with new acquisitions in Finland and Romania and a construction start in Germany. In Finland, the company acquired three storage projects with combined capacity above 1.4 GWh. Two projects totaling 902 MWh are now under construction, with the third expected to start later this year. Enlight anticipates the Finnish projects will enter commercial operation in the first half of 2028 and generate more than $50 million of EBITDA in their first full year, with a combined unlevered return of about 16.5%.
In Romania, Enlight acquired the Karpen Cluster, which will add 848 MWh of storage capacity. The company expects an unlevered return of about 17%, with commercial operation starting in phases from the second half of 2028 through the first half of 2029. In Germany, Enlight began construction on the 880-MWh Bertikow battery-storage project, also targeted for commercial operation in the first half of 2028. Leviatan said the European storage push is driven by a growing mismatch between renewable output hours and electricity consumption, and Enlight plans to combine merchant-market upside with contracted revenue structures, including floor contracts, to support financing.
Enlight raised about $350 million in the second quarter by expanding its Series G bond on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange at a stated rate of 4.4%. That followed a $422 million private placement of equity in the first quarter. At the end of the quarter, Enlight held $877 million in cash at the corporate level and $287 million at subsidiaries, with $480 million available under credit facilities and about $1.1 billion available under letter-of-credit and surety-bond facilities.
Management said the mature portfolio consists of 3.9 FGW of operating assets and 8.4 FGW under construction or in pre-construction. Roughly 69% of required project financing has been secured, and about half of required equity has been invested. Enlight had about $1.2 billion of liquidity available to fund the roughly $700 million of remaining equity investments required for the mature portfolio.
The company expects an additional 2.7 FGW to begin construction in 2026 and said it could have more than 7 FGW under construction by year-end. It expects more than 90% of its mature portfolio to be operating or under construction by the end of 2026.
By the end of 2028, Enlight’s roadmap targets about 12 FGW of operating capacity and annual recurring revenue and income above $2.2 billion. The company is also developing a data-center pipeline of roughly 2 GWIT across the United States, Israel and Europe, though its 2028 roadmap excludes contributions from that business. Management expects capital expenditures for selected data-center initiatives to begin in 2027.
The results come at a time when data-center growth and electrification are forcing power markets to adapt quickly. Enlight’s storage investments in Europe and its early data-center-linked PPA in the United States are part of a broader push by independent power producers to sell cleaner, more flexible power rather than rely only on traditional offtake contracts. For Enlight, the immediate priority is execution: moving projects like CO Bar and the European storage portfolio into service while it works to convert a large development pipeline into recurring cash flow.
Enlight Renewable Energy Ltd., founded in 2008 and headquartered in Tel Aviv, is an independent power producer specializing in utility-scale solar, onshore wind and energy storage. Its activities span development, financing, construction and long-term operation of renewable energy assets, primarily in Israel and Western Europe.