The investment is expected to support the national build-out of the company’s 500 MW+ pipeline of renewables and energy storage projects.
June 8, 2022
Agilitas Energy, an integrated developer, builder, owner, and operator of distributed solar and energy storage systems in the Northeast United States, announced it raised $350 million of equity in a two-tiered investment from funds managed by CarVal Investors L.P. The funds are planned to support the development of Agilitas’ large project pipeline in excess of 500 MW.
The investment amount may be upsized to $650 million upon the completion of designated projects. CarVal now assumes a minority stake in the company, and the two have established a joint venture to own and operate the energy assets.
“With our experienced management team, existing project pipeline and organizational expertise combined with the support of CarVal, we’re well positioned to expand nationally and help make a dent in our country’s decarbonization goals. CarVal adds significant value beyond their capital. They are smart business athletes with real-world energy and business acumen who will be true partners as we execute our growth plan.” Barret Bilotta, president of Agilitas Energy.
Energy storage is increasingly an important aspect of a resilient, reliable electricity supply backed by solar energy. The Energy Storage Association said, “Energy storage fundamentally improves the way we generate, deliver and consume electricity…But the game-changing nature of energy storage is its ability to balance power supply and demand instantaneously – within milliseconds – which makes power networks more resilient, efficient and cleaner than ever before.”
CarVal said it selected Agilitas for the investment due to its standout track record. According to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s latest report on U.S. interconnection queues, only 13% of solar, wind and energy storage projects in approval queues have signed interconnection agreements. Over the past decade, only about 23% of all projects in interconnection queues have successfully connected to the grid and begun operating. Bucking that trend, Agilitas has a 100% success rate of bringing all of its projects through the queue and connecting to the grid, said the company.
Agilitas has core competencies in project origination, development, project engineering, debt and tax equity financing, engineering, procurement, and construction, and asset management, including energy storage revenue optimization. The company operates a proprietary bidding and forecasting model called Intelligent Power Dispatch, aimed at boosting revenues by predicting market conditions in day-ahead and real-time energy markets.
Active projects and components used
The company said within 90 days, the joint venture expects to acquire eight projects totaling 45 MW. This includes two Massachusetts SMART program projects and one stand-alone storage project in Rhode Island, already under construction, two stand-alone storage systems under development in Maine, and three operational solar facilities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Jeff Perry, vice president of Agilitas Energy told pv magazine that his company solely uses Bloomberg Tier 1 solar modules. Recently, projects have featured Hanwha Q Cell and ZNShine modules. For inverters, the company has recently used Massachusetts-made Solectria products, SMA, and WSTECH. For energy storage applications, the company uses Tier 1 equipment, including LG Chem, Samsung, CATL, Tesla, and Dynapower equipment.
“We are vendor agnostic (as long as it proven, well-established equipment). We have experience with most of what is out there,” said Perry.
Agilitas Energy is currently hiring for roles across the major functional groups of the company with a particular focus on adding to the development team. To learn more, please visit https://agilitasenergy.com/contact/.
