Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners (Quinbrook), a specialist investment manager focused exclusively on new infrastructure needed for the energy transition, is to sell its portfolio company, Scout Clean Energy (Scout), to Brookfield Renewable for c$1 billion in cash on completion.
Quinbrook acquired Scout as a start-up in 2017 for an initial investment of just $6 million. A partnership was established with Scout’s founder and CEO Michael Rucker to create a large-scale, vertically integrated wind power producer focused on the development, construction, ownership and operational management of large-scale wind power assets diversified across multiple US states and power markets.
Over that period, Quinbrook deployed a further $470 million of equity capital from its managed funds and spearheaded the rapid growth of Scout into a fully integrated developer, owner and operator of a diverse and multi-technology asset portfolio spanning 1,200 MW of operational wind projects in four states, including 400 MW managed on behalf of third parties, and plans to deliver over 22 GW of wind, solar and storage projects across 24 states by the end of this decade. Of these projects, 8.6 GW have interconnection queue positions and 2,500 MW are in late-stage development with pending construction starts.
Scout’s pipeline has grown rapidly since 2019, in particular, and has achieved 65 per cent year-on-year growth in scale over that period. Over 130 landowners in regional areas have benefited from long term land lease programs, and local communities hosting Scout projects have benefited from more than 3,400 local jobs supported and over $240 million in committed financial benefits. Scout’s operating projects have generated an estimated 8.5 TWh of carbon-free power to date, avoiding an estimated 6 million tCO2e of carbon emissions based on average grid intensities.
