Brookfield Renewable will acquire Scout Clean Energy from its sponsor Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, for $1 billion in cash. Brookfield also plans to invest an additional $350 million to support the business’ development activities. Scout’s portfolio includes more than 1.2 GW of operating wind assets in the PJM, CAISO, ERCOT and SPP power markets, and a pipeline of over 22 GW of wind, solar and storage projects across 24 states. Of these assets, 8.6 GW have interconnection queue positions and 2.5 GW are in late-stage development, with construction expected to start soon.
Quinbrook acquired Scout as a start-up in 2017 for an initial investment of just $6 million. The company’s pipeline has grown rapidly since 2019, witnessing 65% year-on-year growth in scale during the period. The buildout was driven by a $240 million long-term land lease program with more than 130 landowners, as well as agreements with local communities to host several projects.
Brookfield Renewable has also closed on the acquisition of Standard Solar for $540 million, with the potential to invest an additional $160 million to support the business’ growth initiatives. Standard Solar is focussed on owning and operating commercial and community distributed solar assets, with end-to-end development capabilities. The company holds ~500 MW of operating and under construction contracted projects and a robust development pipeline of almost 2 GW, primarily across high value solar markets on the US East Coast, such as New York, Maryland, Minnesota and Maine.
The transactions will be funded through the Brookfield Global Transition Fund I, touted to be the largest private fund dedicated to energy transition investments. The fund, which was closed in Jun’22, has invested or allocated $3.5 billion for clean energy investments and follow-on capital in North America in 2022.
The attached image represents a timeline of Brookfield’s renewables acquisitions in North America since 2021.
The above analysis is proprietary to Enerdatics’ energy analytics team, based on the current understanding of the available data. The information is subject to change and should not be taken to constitute professional advice or a recommendation.
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