NextEnergy Capital announces the establishment of a $100m platform for US Community Solar
NextPower III, NextEnergy Capital’s third institutional solar fund, is pleased to announce its third acquisition in the USA:
✓ Establishment of an investment platform with experienced solar developers and investment partners with a target to invest up to $100m of NPIII equity in community solar projects in the US
✓ First portfolio acquired comprises c.100MWp across multiple sites located in the state of New York
✓ The portfolio is expected to be fully constructed and operational within 18 months
✓ Long-term fixed revenue stream for projects from the Value of Distributed Energy Resources mechanism in New York state for 25 years
✓ Additional portfolios already identified to enable deployment of further capital in community solar assets across various states in the US
✓ NextPower III’s capacity in operation and under construction, across five projects grows to 285MWp
✓ NextPower III has ten further projects under exclusivity with a total capacity in excess of 1GWp.
NextPower III’s investment strategy is to acquire solar power plants at the ready-to-build status or in operation across high-growth international markets. The investment team is currently focusing its efforts to increase the portfolios in the USA, Latin America, Southern Europe and India, where NPIII have ongoing transactions, and expect to announce further acquisitions during the second quarter of 2020. Further regions will be added with the ongoing growth of NextPower III’s capital base.
Aldo Beolchini, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer, commented:
“This is the second transaction we executed in a short time following the 36.1MW project in Mexico announced on March 30, 2020, testifying our international execution capabilities, especially in the current difficult business climate. Our investment activities are proving to be quite resilient vis-à-vis the COVID-19 situation and we are on track to complete our investment programme. The NextPower III team is currently executing acquisitions from our pipeline of projects under exclusivity for over 1GWp”
Lorena Ciciriello, Managing Director, Head of Debt Financing, commented:
“We are particularly excited by this first step in the growing US community solar market. It further consolidates our presence in the US, a solar market of high strategic importance for NextEnergy. Through this investment platform we are expecting to raise in excess of $200m of debt and tax equity financing for our US community solar portfolio, extending our current relationships with providers of financing and creating synergies for future transactions.”
