Major global power firm AES Corporation and Canada-based investment manager Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) have agreed to acquire utility-scale solar developer sPower from Fir Tree Partners and its minority owners.

sPower, headquartered in Salt Lake City, develops and owns utility-scale solar projects across the US, with a portfolio of 1,274MW of solar and wind projects in operation or under construction. The company's utility-scale projects are mostly based in California and North Carolina, while its distributed generation assets are mostly clustered in the North East states or California. The firm also has a US development pipeline of more than 10GW.

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The transaction includes US$853 million in cash and the assumption of US$724 million in non-recourse debt. AES and AIMCo will each independently own just under 50% equity in sPower.

The transaction is expected to close by the third quarter of 2017. Once complete AES’ portfolio of renewable energy projects in operation and under construction will increase from 8,278MW to 9,552MW, including hydro, wind, solar and energy storage capacities. Notably, AES subsidiary AES Energy Storage last year agreed to install the largest battery-based energy storage project in the US for utility San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E).

Andrés Gluski, AES president and chief executive, said: “We are very pleased to acquire sPower, the largest independent solar developer in the United States. sPower not only brings 1.3GW of installed capacity with an average remaining contract life of more than 20 years, but a first class management and development team with a pipeline of more than 10GW of projects.”

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