Koch Strategic Platforms (KSP), a subsidiary of Koch Investments Group, has made a US$150 million investment in racking and tracking company GameChange Solar to support its strategic development goals.
GameChange focuses on utility-scale solar PV projects, supplying mounting solutions, trackers and software to renewable developers and engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) firms.
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It will use the proceeds of the investment to expand its established market share in the US and globally, accelerate product research and development, grow its customer base and increase its international deployment and manufacturing presence.
The company was ranked as the third largest solar tracker company in the US and the sixth largest vendor globally in 2020 by Wood Mackenzie. The investment by KSP will help fuel continued growth in 2022 and beyond, GameChange Solar said.
GameChange’s CFO, Mark Gibbens, said: “We are excited to be able to launch this next phase of our growth with the validation of a major investor in the energy transformation space. Koch offers not just the capital to grow, but the opportunity to mutually leverage the capabilities of each organisation.”
The companies said they will “continue to explore strategic partnerships” in key areas, “supporting additional growth opportunities for GameChange Solar and Koch.”
GameChange Solar will explore “the opportunity to provide mutually beneficial alignment with several Koch Industries businesses”. It pointed to improvements in its global supply chain, advances in energy management software and increased market visibility as areas that Koch Industries could assist on.
Koch Industries is best known for its background in fossil fuels. It has previously said that its entry into the renewables sector was down to the “cost-competitiveness of utility-scale solar on an unsubsidised basis”, which meant it was becoming an “increasingly significant part of the generation mix”.
KSP, as a venture capital arm of the group, has made recent investments into a number of energy storage-related companies.
In July, our sister site Energy-Storage.news reported KSP had committed to investing US$100 million into Eos Energy Enterprises, a US manufacturer of a novel zinc-based battery energy storage technology.
It also announced another US$100 million investment in September, this time into lithium-ion battery recycling and materials recovery startup Li-Cycle and in October said it had formed a joint venture (JV) with Norwegian advanced battery cell manufacturer FREYR Battery to explore the possibility of building a battery factory with up to 50GWh annual manufacturing capacity in the US by 2030.
At the start of the month (3 December), Koch Engineered Solutions acquired US engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firm DEPCOM, which specialises in utility-scale solar PV projects.