Dive Brief:
- Renewable energy investment firm CleanCapital announced Tuesday that it has acquired a solar portfolio comprising of 64 projects from Greenbacker, an energy transition-focused investor and independent power producer.
- The acquired operational projects have 51.2 megawatts of power generation capacity and expand CleanCapital’s portfolio to include more than 350 solar and energy storage projects that are either operational or under construction, according to the release. The price of the acquisition was not disclosed yesterday.
- CleanCapital, also an independent power producer, said the deal is “among the largest in the company’s 10-year history.” The company’s senior director of business development, Alyssa Rinaldi said in the release that CleanCapital has worked to build its “reputation for efficiency and certainty to transact with portfolio acquisitions like this one.”
Dive Insight:
The portfolio of projects CleanCapital acquired from Greenbacker is located across 13 states and includes rooftop and ground mounted solar systems, according to the release. In addition to serving commercial customers, much of the portfolio serves municipalities, universities, schools and hospitals.
This marks CleanCapital’s second announced acquisition of the year, following a June deal with Pacifico Energy for over 27 MW of solar generation and 25 megawatt hours of battery storage in Massachusetts and California.
“Continued investment in operating assets is critical to satisfying ever-increasing energy demand across the U.S.,”CleanCapital Chief Investment Officer Julia Bell said in the July 29 release. “This portfolio is a textbook example of both the value of distributed generation assets and the opportunities that accompany portfolios like this one.”
The deal between the New York City-based firms follows a rebrand for Greenbacker, which shortened its name from Greenbacker Renewable Energy Company earlier in July. The independent power producer reported increasing its “homegrown” clean energy production by 23% in 2024 and brought more than two dozen solar assets online, according to the July 15 rebrand announcement.
“We are pleased to collaborate with CleanCapital on a deal that delivers high-quality, high-impact assets, while supporting our strategic focus on building larger-scale clean power projects that accelerate the transition to a more resilient and sustainable U.S. energy system,” Greenbacker interim CEO Dan De Boer said in Tuesday’s release.
Greenbacker is currently working on the largest solar project in New York State, to date, the 674 MW Cider solar farm. That project — named the best North American solar deal of 2024 by market intelligence company Proximo Infra — broke ground that year, is under construction and expected to be completed by late 2026. Earlier this year, the firm secured over $950 million in funding to acquire and complete the project.
