US energy investment firm Excelsior Energy Capital has raised US$1 billion under its latest equity investment vehicle, Excelsior Renewable Energy Investment Fund II.
The funds will be invested in ownership of solar PV, energy storage, wind and “other energy transition projects” across the US. Excelsior said that over 50% of the fund is already deployed in 15 solar and energy storage projects, totalling 2.25GW of generation capacity.
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Fund II exceeded its US$750 million initial target, Excelsior said, and follows the US$504 million Fund I that is now fully deployed across 1.95GW of solar, wind and energy storage assets.
Excelsior formed a new solar and energy storage project development firm – Lydian Energy – as part of the fund. The subsidiary has three large-scale projects under construction and is scheduled to come online this year, Excelsior said, and is “central” to the investor’s planned expansion.
The fund was anchored by the Development Bank of Japan (DBJ) and attracted investors from the US, Japan, Europe, Australia and the Middle East, including “a broad mix” of pension plans, asset managers, family offices and other investors, Excelsior said.
Alex Ellis, co-founder and partner of Excelsior Energy Capital, said: “Exceeding our target, especially in this fundraising market, is a great outcome.”
The firm signed a solar module supply agreement last year with Canadian solar manufacturer Heliene, noting that the 2GW of modules included under the deal would be mostly produced at Heliene’s manufacturing facility in Mountain Iron, Minnesota. At the time, Chris Frantz, partner at Excelsior, said the US-made products would “materially de-risk” Excelsior’s supply chains for its investments.
Private equity funds are investing heavily in US solar PV and energy storage assets. In March last year, Excelsior sold an 89MW US solar-plus-storage portfolio to Blackrock, the world’s largest single asset owner. Blackrock itself has previously made a US$500 million equity investment in Recurrent Energy, the solar development subsidiary of Canadian Solar.
Canadian asset manager Brookfield acquired US renewable energy developer National Grid Renewables in February and already owns the utility-scale renewables arm of US utility giant Duke Energy.
