In one of the company’s largest transactions to date, Greenbacker has acquired a significant financial interest in the 150MW operating Aurora solar portfolio
Greenbacker Renewable Energy said that it has, through a subsidiary, purchased a 49% financial interest in the 150MW operating Aurora solar portfolio from BlackRock Global Renewable Power Fund II.
The portfolio consists of 16 solar projects in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, and it represents one of Greenbacker’s single largest acquisitions to date. Each of the projects within the portfolio reached commercial operation between the fourth quarter of 2016 and second quarter of 2017, has a long-term power purchase agreement in place with an offtaker, and is between five and 15MW in capacity.
As for the portfolio’s remaining 51% ownership interest, that is held by the project’s original developer, Enel Green Power North America.
The acquisition brings Greenbacker’s total portfolio of renewable energy assets to over 2.6GW of generating capacity, and also marks Greenbacker’s second portfolio acquisition the last month. In February, Greenbacker announced that it had purchased a 20MW pre-operational solar portfolio from TUUSSO Energy, a Seattle-based utility-scale solar developer.
Those three projects, all clocking in at 6.7MW, represent Greenbacker’s first assets in Washington state, though they will not be completed until later in the year.
Just prior to that news, Greenbacker announced that it purchased a 16.3MW operational solar portfolio from developer ECA Solar and Alliance Fund II, a sustainable infrastructure fund. The portfolio, located entirely in Massachusetts, comprises 16 rooftop solar projects with each installation ranging in capacity from 0.3MW to 4.2MW.
