Recurrent Energy, a subsidiary of Canadian Solar Inc. and a developer and owner of solar and energy storage assets, secured a $500 million equity investment commitment from BlackRock.
The investment will represent 20% of the outstanding fully diluted shares of Recurrent Energy on an as-converted basis. Canadian Solar will continue to own the remaining majority shares of Recurrent Energy after the closing of the investment.
“The infusion of capital from our partner BlackRock, who is also Canadian Solar’s largest institutional investor, will provide the resources needed to further scale the Recurrent Energy platform and meet record clean energy power demand across the world,” said Dr. Shawn Qu, chairman and CEO, Canadian Solar.
The investment, which Blackrock made through a fund managed by its Climate Infrastructure business, will provide Recurrent Energy with additional capital to grow its project development pipeline. It will also enable Recurrent to transition from a pure developer to a developer plus long-term owner and operator in select markets in the U.S. and Europe.
“Recurrent Energy is emblematic of our strategy of investing in leading renewable power generation assets and transition-enabling infrastructure, and we are pleased to make this first investment commitment from the fourth vintage of BlackRock’s Climate Infrastructure fund franchise,” said David Giordano, global head of climate infrastructure and chief investment officer of transition capital, BlackRock.
Recurrent Energy reports that it has built approximately 9 GW of solar and 3 GWh of battery storage power plants across six continents since 2009. As of Q4 2023, Recurrent Energy had a global development pipeline of 26 GW in solar and 55 GWh in storage, of which 13 GW and 12 GWh respectively are projects with interconnections. The company anticipates having 4 GW of solar and 2 GWh of storage in operation in the U.S. and Europe by 2026.
