Enlight Renewable Energy (NASDAQ:ENLT) held its second-quarter earnings conference call on Tuesday. Below is the complete transcript from the call.
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Summary
Enlight Renewable Energy reported a 55% increase in revenues to $210 million and a 67% rise in adjusted EBITDA for Q2 2026, highlighting strong project execution and financial performance.
The company raised its 2026 annual guidance, increasing revenue and adjusted EBITDA projections due to strong first-half results and favorable electricity prices in Europe and Israel.
Key strategic initiatives include the completion of a $2.6 billion financing for the Cobar complex in Arizona, a PPA agreement with Google for the Solstice project, and expansion into new markets in Europe with storage projects in Finland and Romania.
Operational highlights include a 6% increase in the mature component of the project portfolio and securing safe harbor status for 17.9 gigawatts of capacity, demonstrating growth and positioning for future tax benefits.
Management emphasized a robust financial position with $877 million in cash and significant liquidity, supporting ongoing growth and project development.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
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 conflicts in the Middle East on our operations and financial condition and company actions designed to mitigate such impact, 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 laws, 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 the 2025 Annual Report filed with the SEC on March 30, 2026 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 call, which are posted on our Investor Relations webpage. With me this morning are Gilad Yavetz, Chief Executive Officer of Enlight Renewable Energy, Nir Yehuda, Chief Financial Officer of Enlight Renewable Energy, and Jared McKee, Chief Executive Officer of Clēnera.
Adi will begin with an overview of our performance and key milestones achieved during the quarter, followed by Nir, who will review our financial results for the second quarter. Jared will then provide an update on our U.S. operations and business activities. Our prepared remarks will be accompanied by a presentation. To follow along, please access the webcast or visit enlightenergy.com data financial reports. Following the prepared remarks, we will open the call for a question and answer session.
I will now turn the call over to Gilad Yavetz, CEO of Enlight Renewable Energy.
Gilad Yavetz, CEO
Good morning and good afternoon everyone, and thank you for joining us today to discuss Enlight Renewable Energy's second quarter 2026 results. The second quarter marked another period of strong execution for Enlight Renewable Energy, underscoring the resilience of our global platform, the quality of our portfolio, and our consistent ability to deliver our business plan. That execution translated into record financial performance. Revenues and income increased by 55%, adjusted EBITDA grew by 67%, net profit reached $31 million, and operating cash flow rose by 34% year over year to $84 million.
These results demonstrate our ability to convert our project development portfolio into operating assets, growing earnings and driving cash generation. The market environment around us continues to evolve rapidly. Electricity demand is accelerating, driven by the rise of artificial intelligence, unprecedented digital infrastructure buildout alongside additional electrification in industry and transportation. We believe this is a long-term infrastructure growth story and that the need for reliable, scalable, and cost-effective clean power has never been greater.
Against this backdrop, Enlight Renewable Energy's diversified platform, disciplined execution, and capital allocation provide resilience and position us to meet the growing demand. Based on the strength of our results year to date and our updated outlook for the remainder of the year, we are raising our 2026 annual guidance. We are raising both revenues and income and adjusted EBITDA guidance by 4.5% and 3.6% at the midpoint to $805 million and $575 million respectively.
The increase in guidance reflects the strong first half results as well as elevated merchant prices in Europe and growth in our electricity trade activity in Israel. Our CFO, Nir, will review the results, guidance, and our financial position in more detail shortly. On the execution side, Q2 was equally strong. Let me highlight the key milestones. The mature component of our project portfolio grew by 6% while our total portfolio grew by 4.6% to a total of 43.1 factored gigawatts.
We completed the financial close for the Cobar complex, our largest single financing to date at $2.6 billion, structured with a consortium of seven leading global financial institutions. Cobar is a five-phase complex comprising 1.2 gigawatts of solar generation and 4 gigawatt-hours of storage in Arizona, a flagship demonstration of our execution capability at scale. We signed a power purchase agreement with Google for our Solstice project in Oklahoma, our first commercial offtake agreement in the U.S. and our first PPA in the Southern Power Pool. We exceeded the upper range of our safe harbor targets, reaching 17.9 factored gigawatts of safe harbor capacity, positioning us to continue to drive highly profitable growth in the U.S. In addition, we are well positioned to capture the next wave of tax benefits in energy storage which is in place until the end of 2033. We expanded our European storage footprint into two new and attractive markets, Finland and Romania, acquiring several mature projects with high expected returns.
Some projects have already started construction during the quarter, with commercial operation dates starting from 2028. Overall, our assets operated reliably, our projects advanced according to plan, and our financial results speak for themselves. Now I will hand over the floor to Nir, our CFO, to review our quarterly results and guidance in more detail.
Nir Yehuda, CFO
Thank you, Adi. The second quarter of 2026 was another strong quarter for Enlight Renewable Energy with impressive growth in all our major financial parameters. The company's total revenues and income increased to $210 million, up 55% from $135 million last year. The growth is attributed to new projects which contributed $21 million from electricity sales and $19 million from tax benefits. Existing projects contributed an additional $12 million, including $6 million from an increase in generation and higher electricity prices and $6 million of additional tax benefit from domestic content at the Artwisco project, which qualified for these benefits in Q3 2025. In addition, a favorable exchange rate contributed $13 million and electricity trading activity contributed $9 million. The company’s adjusted EBITDA grew by 67% to $160 million compared to $96 million for the same period in 2025. The increase of $75 million in revenues and income was offset by an additional $70 million in cost of sales linked mainly to new projects and to the growth in electricity trading activity in Israel. G&A and project development expenses, excluding share-based compensation, increased by $6 million, and other income decreased by $4 million, mainly as a result of compensation for lost revenues recorded in Q2 2025. In addition, Q2 2026 adjusted EBITDA includes a contribution of $17 million from a follow-on sale of an additional 15% interest in the Sunlight Cluster. Second quarter net income amounted to $31 million compared to $6 million in Q2 2025. The $47 million increase in adjusted EBITDA, excluding the contribution from the follow-on sell-down, was partially offset by a $10 million increase in depreciation and amortization mainly due to newly operational projects, a $4 million increase in share-based compensation expenses, and an $18 million increase in financial expenses also largely related to newly operational projects.
This impact was partially offset by a $7 million increase in financial income and by the absence of $12 million in foreign exchange expenses recorded in Q2 2025. Tax expenses increased by $9 million. The ongoing improvement in cash flow from operations continued during the second quarter, reinforcing the quality of earnings and indicating that the improvement in results is supported by strong cash generation from core operations. Excluding working capital fluctuations, our operating cash flow generation reached a run rate of approximately $100 million per quarter.
This strong and recurring cash generation provides an important source of internally funded capital, reinforcing our ability to execute on our growth strategy. The strong financial performance continued in the second quarter, resulting in 55% revenue growth in the first half of the year. Excluding the contribution from the sales of interest in the Sunlight Cluster, adjusted EBITDA increased by about $99 million, or 53%, to $314 million, and net income increased by $42 million to $68 million in the first half.
Our operating cash flow for the first half of the year increased by 48% to $185 million. As a result of the strong financial performance in the first half of the year, we are raising our full-year revenue guidance to a range of $790 to $820 million from $755 million to $785 million, and our adjusted EBITDA guidance to $565 million to $585 million from $545 million to $565 million. In addition to the contribution of the first half financial performance, the increase in guidance is attributed to an increased revenue outlook for Enlight Renewable Energy’s electricity trading operation in Israel as well as higher electricity prices in Europe and in Israel. 2026 is expected to continue Enlight Renewable Energy's consistent high-rate profitable growth. As we demonstrated since our inception, during the first half of 2026 Enlight Renewable Energy continued to solidify and diversify its financial position, raising approximately $350 million in Q2 through an expansion of Enlight Series G bond on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange at an attractive rate of 4.4%, only 0.8% above the comparable risk-free bond.
This was in addition to a $422 million equity raise through a private placement in the first quarter. As of the end of the second quarter, our cash and cash equivalents at the TopCo level amounted to $877 million. Additionally, we had $287 million held by subsidiaries. In addition, we had $550 million of credit facility with $418 million available, and approximately $1.7 billion in LC/insurance bonds facility including approximately $1.1 billion available, further enhancing our financial flexibility.
Our solid financial position and internal resources will continue to support our growth towards revenue and income of over $2.2 billion and beyond. With that, I will turn over the call to Jared to review our U.S. operations and business activities.
Gilad Yavetz, CEO
Thank you, Jared. Moving to Europe, where we continue to build our position as one of the leading utility-scale renewable and storage developers on the continent. During Q2, we entered a new market, Romania, and significantly expanded our position in Finland. In Finland, where renewables make up 65% of electricity generation, we acquired three storage projects with a total storage capacity of more than 1.4 gigawatt-hours to meet the high demand for storage.
Two of the projects, with a total capacity of 902 megawatt-hours, started construction, and the third is expected to start construction later this year. Commercial operation dates for all three projects are planned for the first half of 2028, generating more than $50 million EBITDA, reflecting combined unlevered returns of about 16.5% in the first full year of operation. Returns for these projects in Europe are elevated due to the extreme shortage in energy storage, a trend we see as an opportunity for Enlight's storage position.
Production of wind and solar in the Finnish market is expected to more than double by 2030, leading to a more than tenfold growth in demand for storage. The acquisition of these ready-to-build projects will strengthen our footprint in the Nordics and establish Enlight as an early mover in Finland's energy storage market, providing a strong foundation to become a leading player as the market develops. In Romania, we acquired the Karpen cluster, adding 848 megawatt-hours of storage capacity at an expected unlevered return of approximately 17%.
This cluster is included in our pre-construction portfolio, with commercial operations expected to begin in phases from the second half of 2028 through the first half of 2029. Romania remains an earlier-stage renewables market, with wind and solar generation expected to double by 2040 and storage demand projected to more than triple between 2026 and 2030. More broadly, Europe continues to offer attractive opportunities for scaled IPPs and developers.
The regulatory environment increasingly favors companies with strong balance sheets, established regional infrastructure, and the execution capabilities to finance, build, and operate projects at scale. The breadth of milestones achieved this quarter underscores the strength of our execution. Our total portfolio grew by 4.6% sequentially to 43.1 factored gigawatts, while the mature component, comprising operating, under-construction, and pre-construction projects, increased by 6% to 12.3 factored gigawatts, further expanding the portion of our portfolio closest to revenue generation.
We made meaningful progress across every stage of the portfolio. Growth in the mature component was supported by targeted acquisitions in Finland and Romania, while construction commenced on the 880 megawatt-hour Bertigo battery storage project in Germany, which remains on track for commercial operation in the first half of 2028. We also advanced approximately 850 factored megawatts from development into advanced development and added 2 factored gigawatts to our U.S. development portfolio, primarily across CAISO, PJM, and SPP markets that represent important new growth platforms for Enlight. This progress is translating directly into our 2028 roadmap. The estimated annual revenues and income associated with the mature component of our portfolio increased from approximately $2.1 billion to $2.3 billion. The construction momentum that began in 2025 has accelerated meaningfully through 2026. These are defining build-out years for Enlight, during which we are deploying substantial capital and converting our mature portfolio into operating assets.
With an additional 2.7 factored gigawatts expected to begin construction, we expect to have more than 7 factored gigawatts under construction by the end of 2026, positioning the company for a significant wave of commercial operations in 2027 and 2028 and putting us firmly on track to tripling our operating capacity by the end of 2026. We expect more than 90% of our mature portfolio to be either operating or under construction. This provides a high degree of visibility into the next phase of growth as projects built progressively reach COD and begin contributing revenues and cash flow through 2027 and 2028.
The scale of this build-out is evident in our capital deployment. Capital expenditure doubled in the first half of the year to $1.3 billion compared to the same period last year. About 50% of equity required was already invested, with approximately $1.2 billion of liquidity on hand to support roughly $700 million of remaining equity investments required, and approximately 69% of the required project financing has already been secured. I want to spend a moment on our data center strategy, which we view as a pivotal new growth engine for Enlight Renewable Energy, one that builds directly on the capabilities, assets, and market presence of our existing renewable energy platform. Our pipeline consists of around 2 GW IT of data center capacity across the United States, Israel, and Europe. Our strategy targets near-generation, large-scale facilities exceeding 100 megawatt IT in a select group of markets where we believe the energy fundamentals provide a distinct advantage. These locations combine access to scalable generation and storage, suitable land, and critical grid infrastructure—capabilities that are becoming increasingly valuable as access to power emerges as the principal constraint on data center growth.
The strategic fit is compelling. Our renewable operations provide many of the core inputs required by hyperscalers and co-locators: large grid-connected sites, access to generation and storage, and deep expertise in developing, financing, constructing, and operating complex energy infrastructure. By integrating data centers alongside these assets, we can create a differentiated proposition centered on reliable, cost-effective, and lower-carbon power.
We expect capex investments to begin in 2027 for certain data center assets as selected initiatives advance towards construction. Importantly, our roadmap through 2028 does not currently include any contribution from the data center platform that will provide the next wave of growth for Enlight. Enlight has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to identify early transformative market trends and convert that insight into value creation. We believe our data center initiative represents the company's next significant growth engine, supporting continued expansion well beyond 2028.
Based on our three-year business roadmap, our operating capacity is expected to reach about 12 factored gigawatts, translating into annual recurring revenue and income of more than $2.2 billion. This is an increase of about $100 million from the previous quarter. Our mature portfolio revenues and income are now surpassing the 2028 annual recurring revenue level after growing by $200 million from the previous quarter. As we see mature projects expected to come online during 2029, the path to $2.2 to $2.3 billion in ARR by end of 2028 is anchored in projects we already own.
With financing increasingly in place and capex being deployed, Enlight's growth story is not just about scale; it is about disciplined returns as well. Our under- and pre-construction portfolio of 8.4 factored gigawatts is expected to deliver approximately 13% unlevered project returns, implying a return on equity above 18% after leverage. We are actively capitalizing on the opportunities across our markets while growing with discipline, protecting returns, maintaining balance sheet strength, and ensuring that every project meets our threshold for long-term shareholder value creation.
The business environment in which Enlight operates is, in our view, the most favorable it has been, and it meets Enlight at its strongest position. Electricity demand is accelerating, driven by AI and data center expansion, industrial electrification, and the broader energy transition. In the United States alone, data center electricity consumption is expected to triple between 2025 and 2030, creating an urgent need for substantial new capacity that can be deployed rapidly, economically, and at scale.
Solar plus storage, among our strongest growth engines, is exceptionally well-suited to meet this demand. It offers a shorter time to market, an attractive cost of energy, and the operational flexibility increasingly required by modern power systems. These fundamentals are reinforced by greater regulatory clarity in the United States and Europe, attractive equipment costs for solar and storage, and an industry-wide consolidation process that increasingly favors scaled, well-capitalized operators.
This is where Enlight is particularly well positioned. Our global operating platform, strong financial capacity, proven execution, large portfolio of grid-ready sites, and a global network of top-tier partners give us the ability to convert these market conditions into disciplined and continuous high-return growth. Before we turn to questions, let me leave you with four key takeaways from the quarter. First, we delivered record results and raised our 2026 outlook and the 2028 roadmap, reflecting the continued scaling of our operating portfolio, the quality of our underlying assets, and our confidence in the remainder of the year.
Second, the milestones achieved this quarter—including the Cobar financial close, the Google PPA in Oklahoma, exceeding our safe-harbor targets, and our expansion into Finland and Romania—demonstrate our ability to execute at scale, broaden our commercial reach, and strengthen the resilience of our portfolio. Third, 2025 and 2026 are defining build-out years for Enlight. With a mature portfolio of 12.3 factored gigawatts and more than 90% expected to be operating or under construction by year-end, we have clear visibility into a substantial wave of CODs, revenues, and cash flows through 2027 and 2028.
Fourth, we are entering this next phase from a position of strength with a diversified global platform, a well-funded mature portfolio, proven execution capabilities, a strong management team, and highly favorable market fundamentals. Our priorities remain clear: execute with excellence, allocate capital with discipline, and translate the opportunities across our markets into durable long-term value for shareholders. None of this would be possible without the talent and commitment of our people.
With that, I will open the call for questions.
OPERATOR
Thank you. 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. Thank you. We will now go to our first question. One moment, please. And our first question today comes from the line of Justin Claire from Ross Capital Partners. Please go ahead.
Justin Claire, Analyst at Ross Capital Partners
Hi. Thanks for the time and congratulations on the strong result.
Gilad Yavetz, CEO
Thank you, Justin.
Justin Claire, Analyst at Ross Capital Partners
Yep. So wanted to start out just on the updated guidance here. So it looks like the updated guide implies a lower revenue and adjusted EBITDA in the second half versus the first half, and was just wondering if you could help us understand the drivers of that step down. How much of it reflects just normal seasonality versus potentially lower assumptions for electricity prices or other factors.
Gilad Yavetz, CEO
Thank you so much for the question. I'm actually going to ask Itay Banayan, the Chief Corporate Development Officer, to answer this one.
Itay Banayan, Chief Corporate Development Officer
Justin, good morning. As you remember, we have the trading activity in Israel. It is an activity that helps us expand the dollar profits on our assets. But this activity is also characterized by a lower EBITDA margin. And we see this activity growing in Israel, and it's part of the contribution to the growth in the revenues, but also creates somewhat of a lower overall margin. Am I answering this right? Is this what you asked? Yeah, yeah.
Justin Claire, Analyst at Ross Capital Partners
I'm just, I'm trying to understand the difference between, you know, it looks like H2 might be a little bit lower than what was delivered in H1. Okay, so it's a part. Yeah.
Nir Yehuda, CFO
So it is relevant because, as you may see, we increased the guidance for the year for the revenues more than the EBITDA, and this is part of the reason. The second part might be from the second portion of the sale of the Sunlight cluster. If you remember, in the first quarter we sold another 11% of the cluster and we told the market that during the second quarter we sold another 15% of the Sunlight cluster. And given the fact that we accounted in the EBITDA only for the proportional share of the percentage that was sold, it also contributed to the EBITDA, not to the revenues — to the EBITDA — in the first half of the year.
But there are no expectations for additional sell-downs in the second half of the year.
Justin Claire, Analyst at Ross Capital Partners
Got it. Okay, that's very helpful. Then also wanted to touch on the 2028 outlook here. So the Revenue and Income ARR for the end of the year 2028 did improve, or you increased the total target by about $100 million here, though the operating capacity target looked like it moved slightly lower to 12 gigawatts from 12 to 13 previously. So just wanted to understand why the gigawatt target moved modestly lower, but then also you're able to generate more revenue from that lower capacity figure.
Gilad Yavetz, CEO
Yes, of course. So during the quarter we acquired a number of storage projects in Finland and in Romania totaling about 1.5 gigawatt-hours. These are at RTB; some of them are under construction already and we started construction on them after acquiring them earlier in the quarter. And they are adding to our revenues — they are adding $110 million in revenues in their first year of operation. But then on the capacity side, these are storage projects that we factor in at a rate of 3.5 when we take the gigawatt-hours or megawatt-hours and translate it into gigawatts or megawatts.
So what you see, though, is that that 12 that you're talking about — that you see in the 2028 capacity — that has already been connected. It used to be, as you said, higher. Those projects did not disappear; they were just pushed into, some of them were pushed into 2029. So again, they're still there; they're going to be connecting later. And nevertheless, we can make the same revenues with lesser gigawatts in 2028.
Justin Claire, Analyst at Ross Capital Partners
Got it. Okay, that makes a lot of sense. That's helpful. One more I just wanted to ask — so you signed your first U.S. PPA with a hyperscaler here, so congratulations. Wondering if you anticipate an increasing mix of your projects being signed with hyperscalers, how we should think about that. And then just more broadly, if you could characterize the trend in demand you're seeing for power at this point and the pace of contracting — are customers continuing to accelerate here, or are you seeing any slowdown from what you've seen in the past?
Recent past, sure.
Gilad Yavetz, CEO
So definitely we're expecting to have more PPA contracts in the U.S. and elsewhere that are signed with hyperscalers. And that represents both a shift in the demand for electricity in the market; it also represents our expansion out of WECC to being a national developer and IPP, where in these markets — on SPP, like the Southern Power Pool where the Oklahoma Solstice project is, and then in PJM where we have additional projects that will be connected potentially to data centers in the future — there are these kinds of opportunities.
Whereas in WECC, which is the original stomping grounds of Enlight Renewable Energy, the markets are very much electricity being sold in long-term busbar PPAs to utilities. So it represents the fact that we're now active in additional markets, and we're growing our presence significantly in these markets where the market for electricity is indeed different. Now what we're seeing is we're seeing acceleration — we're seeing acceleration of the demand for electricity — and again we're seeing different kinds of customers.
So whereas in the past, because we were again more in WECC, it would be the only choice or the obvious choice to be signing these PPAs with the utilities, now that we're in the East, in the center of the country in SPP, there are many more kinds of customers. Sometimes we will be selling it to the likes of Google. Other times we will not be selling it to the likes of Google because we will be developing ourselves the data centers that are being supplied with this electricity.
So you will see us not signing necessarily PPAs with external parties at all. We will be using that power ourselves, realizing that we're sitting on a very valuable asset in the fact that we're generating electricity, and this electricity can be used for accreditation for large loads for data centers, and we want to utilize that ourselves.
Justin Claire, Analyst at Ross Capital Partners
Okay, interesting. All right, great. Thanks for the color. I'll pass it on.
OPERATOR
Thank you. Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Christopher Souther from Truist. Please go ahead.
Christopher Souther, Analyst at Truist
Hey, thanks for taking my question, and congrats on the continued execution here. Can you talk about the two new European projects in Finland and Romania? I guess the returns here are a fair bit higher than the portfolio average. Is that anticipated merchant returns, or are there contracted portions as well? And then maybe just talk a little bit about how those pipelines can be — were these opportunistic ways to get a foothold for future greenfield development, or are there potential programmatic relationships in some of these newer markets?
Gilad Yavetz, CEO
Thank you for the question, and we're very happy Truist initiating coverage, so we appreciate that very much. In Finland and in Romania we entered indeed by purchasing, acquiring projects that are near RTB or at RTB — hence, as you remark, not greenfield — in order to get into the market as quickly as possible with this storage capacity, realizing the demand for storage is very high immediately. And we do want to be there quickly, connecting our batteries to provide this very high demand for time-shifting services, meaning the arbitrage in the day-ahead and intraday markets as well as ancillary services, so enjoying the entire revenue stack for each project. We do look at what is the best way for us to maximize the returns while still creating some baseload of contracted revenues that will enable us also to provide a high level of financing with a high level of leverage. So we balance those two. But generally speaking, when we look at these curves — the price curves in these markets — we see that there are significant opportunities both in ancillary services and in trading and arbitrage, and that there are still some opportunities to hedge and create some contracted revenues in a way that doesn't compromise our returns, like with floor contracts where we still are able to enjoy upsides. So we take great care, and we see ourselves as excellent in managing the entire revenue stack to enable the highest returns while not compromising on our ability to finance these projects with significant leverage.
Christopher Souther, Analyst at Truist
Got it. Okay. And then just expanding into those — are there greenfield opportunities behind this or other M&A that you'd kind of follow with?
Gilad Yavetz, CEO
We're already looking at additional projects in Finland and in Romania. When it's these batteries, we try to get to the market as soon as possible because the highest returns are right now. We are working also on some projects that are generation and not storage, and those are also greenfield.
Christopher Souther, Analyst at Truist
Okay, and then maybe just last one for me: on the incremental safe harbor ahead of the July 4 deadline, how did you guys approach some of the earlier-stage development pipeline safe harbor decisions and the risk-reward around projects with CODs that are approaching 2030? Just from a holistic perspective, how did you guys kind of approach that?
Nir Yehuda, CFO
Right. So as you can see in the table for the projects that are in advanced development, we brought 91% of those projects — of the gigawatts of those projects — to safe harbor. And so there's one project that was not safe harbored. And then when we were looking at the early development, or what's called development, we safe harbored 38%. So we were careful in choosing what projects to safe harbor where we're able to have continuous construction and COD before 2030, in order not to make investments into safe harboring where we do not think that the project, in terms of its timeline — when it's going to be getting its interconnection and when we're able to complete the offtake and complete the construction — would make it on time. We did one project at a time with all these considerations. You'll note that we added a fair bit of gigawatts just in these last few months. So in the last quarter we gave a range of 13 to 17, and finally we decided about a few more projects that would cross that finish line, and we got to 17.9. That's because we had the full choice about which projects to make cross the line, and we want to make sure that we're making a decision that takes into account the likelihood of reaching COD by 2030.
Christopher Souther, Analyst at Truist
Got it. Okay. No, that's super helpful. Thanks so much.
Gilad Yavetz, CEO
Thank you.
OPERATOR
Thank you. Our next question today comes from the line of Corinne Blanchard from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Corinne Blanchard, Analyst at Deutsche Bank
Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my question. Maybe two questions. The first one, can you talk about expectations for asset sell-downs for the rest of the year and maybe going into 2027? And then the second question, if you can talk a little bit more about merchant pricing, especially in Europe, and the kind of returns that you're targeting there. And if anything has changed in the last couple of months, especially with some of the geopolitical events.
Thank you.
Gilad Yavetz, CEO
I'll ask Itay, the Chief Corporate Development Officer, to take the question about the sell-downs.
Itay Banayan, Chief Corporate Development Officer
Sure, Corinne. Hey, good morning or good afternoon. In our guidance for the remainder of the year, there are no expectations for additional sell-downs this year. So we had some initial assumptions in the beginning of the year expecting the Sunlight cluster to be sold, moving up from 44% to 70% — it was part of the initial terms of the initial disposition last year. But for the remainder of this year we do not expect additional sell-downs; at least there is nothing in the guidance or in our numbers that takes into consideration additional sell-downs.
Gilad Yavetz, CEO
And Corinne, could you possibly repeat the second part of your question?
Corinne Blanchard, Analyst at Deutsche Bank
Yeah, I was asking just about maybe a broader view on the European market. I know you commented already on the storage side, but I was just kind of more asking about merchant prices in Europe and the kind of returns you expect there, and if anything has changed — maybe your approach to the European market or the dynamic in the European market, especially in the last couple of months with a lot of moving pieces geopolitically and so on.
Itay Banayan, Chief Corporate Development Officer
Well, I think anyone in Europe has noticed the heat wave, and I think that the need for energy, and for renewable energy in particular, is at an all-time high. I'm sure you know that composition of electricity generation in Europe is already over 50% renewable if we just take an average of the whole continent, and some countries are well above that. Our strategy is to focus on the largest and fastest-growing renewable markets in Europe. That's why you see us moving, just in the last couple quarters, into Germany, Finland, Romania, extending our presence in Poland, significantly hybridizing our existing assets in Spain, in Hungary, in Sweden.
Our strategy is to go where the renewable energy is increasing its penetration. It's already high, but increasing its penetration, creating this mismatch between the hours of production of electricity from renewable sources to the hours of demand by consumers. And in that area where there's negative prices, that's the area where batteries are most required. They're required to do this time-shifting between the hours, again, of production and consumption.
And they also serve in ancillary services for various network services. Our strategy is to come into these markets as soon as possible with battery capacity. That is the most lucrative play at the moment. At the same time, we do have a strategy to also maintain our technology mix and maintain also generation opportunities, and we will be pursuing these generation opportunities in markets as well that are accelerating the move from fossil fuels into renewable energy.
Corinne Blanchard, Analyst at Deutsche Bank
Thank you. If I may squeeze one more question. Can you talk about, you know, balance sheet and what's your view or expectation in terms of like do you need further capital to support some of that growth that you have highlighted? Just, you know, overall view on balance sheet and where you stand and what you might need in the next few quarters. Thank you.
Nir Yehuda, CFO
Sure, Corinne. As you remember, we were managing the balance sheet, and it is important for us as we grow to focus on profitability, on free cash flows, return on equity, and also maintain the strong balance sheet and the credit rating that we already have. We measure the balance, the leverage, in debt-to-cap. On page 19 in the presentation we are showing the progress, the development progress and the financing progress for the remainder of the mature portfolio.
So the mature portfolio comprises 3.9 gigawatts operating and the remainder 8.4 gigawatts under construction/pre-construction require about $8.9 billion of capex. In the bottom two bullets you can see that almost 70% of the project financing needed for those projects was already secured. We have 2.7 gigawatts to start construction this year and the remainder next year. And also about 50% of the equity that was needed to invest to date for these projects was already invested.
This equity is coming from the corporate, from the corporate level. And the remainder, $700 million, needed will be invested in the next year or so. We have about $1.2 billion of liquidity on the balance sheet today. So we have more than enough internal sources of capital to support the growth of the mature portfolio which takes us all the way to 2028 and more and then some, I hope. And also it is important to remind you that we are reaching a pace of about $100 million of operating cash flow a quarter.
So the first six months of the year we generated about 185, and there is also some working capital in it. We believe that we're on track of about $100 million of operating cash flow a quarter. And these cash flows will also help the future growth of the company.
Corinne Blanchard, Analyst at Deutsche Bank
Great. Thank you so much.
OPERATOR
Thank you. Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one and one on your telephone. That is star one and one if you would like to ask a question. We will now go to the next question. And the next question today comes from the line of George Chi from Mizuho. Please go ahead.
George Chi, Analyst at Mizuho
Hi guys. Thank you for taking my question. Congrats on a great quarter. I'm going to start with how many solar modules and inverters have you guys procured for your projects in your mature portfolio and also in your advanced phase? And what flexibility do you have to pass any higher prices on those parts due to tariffs or import bans to customers through your PPAs?
Itay Banayan, Chief Corporate Development Officer
George, hey, good morning. We never disclosed how many, so it's hard to talk in numbers, and I wonder if you are asking about, like, expected Section 232. Is that kind of like the behind the scene of the question? Yeah. But yeah. Okay. Okay, so we're focusing on the US for the question, and I can say that a significant portion of the modules needed for the projects under construction in the US is already on US soil. So we don't expect—nobody knows what the final wording of Section 232 will be—but at the moment we don't expect any implications on our projects in the US in the near term.
Regarding the inverters, the new rule language talks about the new models of inverters, so we're talking down the road in the future; it doesn't have any impact on the near term of the projects in the US. So with regards to upcoming regulations we see very little impact, if any, on the projects currently in the mature portfolio in the US. I will just add to that that we have a diversified pool of suppliers. We don't only develop and construct and operate projects in the US; we do so also in 12 countries in Europe and in Israel, and for these purposes we have a diversified pool of suppliers that enables us, also when in the past there were tariffs and restrictions on suppliers from specific countries, for example China, we were able to pivot to supply from other countries. And we have that experience and the ability to shift between in order to make sure that we're still very competitive and are able to procure the production slots and get the equipment in on time.
One last—you asked about the pricing—in many of the PPAs and the supplier agreements we signed in the US we injected mechanisms that in case new regulation will come and will create an increase in the capex, we will not be the only one absorbing it. So there are mechanisms in place to adjust the PPA and also that some of the pain will be absorbed by the suppliers in a way that we will be able to— Exactly. The PPA electricity offtakers—that we will be able to maintain somewhat similar ballparks of returns that we were expecting initially without going and renegotiating and breaking those PPAs.
George Chi, Analyst at Mizuho
Yeah. Also kind of related to the new import ban that they were talking about inverters last week. Do you have any higher pricing expectations—if you could pass those on or not?
Gilad Yavetz, CEO
And by the electricity offtaker.
OPERATOR
Thank you. We will now go to the next question. And the next question today comes from the line of David Paz from Wolfe. Please go ahead.
David Paz, Analyst at Wolfe Research
Hi, good morning. Just on your annual run rates for the revenue income, where within your EBITDA conversion range of 70 to 80% do you expect to be through 2029? Particularly asking given the 2028 run rate has a lot of the large projects which, just from your disclosures, imply about 80% EBITDA margins in the first year. So maybe just holistically or just portfolio-wise, what is the right number within the 70 to 80% for those years? Thank you.
Gilad Yavetz, CEO
Thank you for the question. I'm going to ask our CFO, Nir Yehuda, to respond.
Nir Yehuda, CFO
Okay. Just to be sure that we understood correctly your question: you're asking about the gradual increase of the EBITDA rate, or maintaining 70?
David Paz, Analyst at Wolfe Research
Where within that 70 to 80% range would you point us to through '29? Yes.
Nir Yehuda, CFO
So first of all, you can see it in the segments notes—exactly, you know, who is driving the EBITDA rates of the corporate as a whole. But naturally the US activity has been impacted, I would say heavily, by the tax benefit in terms of the EBITDA rate. But as you can see, in the other segments we maintain the same ratio between the 70 to 80, of course impacted by any sell-down activity that we may operate from time to time.
Gilad Yavetz, CEO
So basically, I mean the US is an increasing share of—an increasing segment of our total revenues, and the EBITDA in the US is on the higher side, in that 70 to 80, because of the tax benefits. So as that segment grows as part of the total, we veer towards the higher ranges of the EBITDA as a company.
David Paz, Analyst at Wolfe Research
Okay, great. Thank you.
OPERATOR
Thank you. There are currently no further questions. I will hand the call back for closing remarks.
Gilad Yavetz, CEO
Thank you. Sharon, thank you so much for joining us this quarter. We highly appreciate the collaboration and the partnership with you, and we look forward to seeing you again next quarter.
OPERATOR
Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.
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