Renewable energy infrastructure investor Excelsior Energy Capital has sold a portfolio of 38 solar energy and solar plus storage projects from its Excelsior Renewable Energy Investment Fund I portfolio to BlackRock’s Evergreen Infrastructure Partners Fund.
The transaction will result in Excelsior divesting its entire stake and marks the first exit for its inaugural fund. The fund’s portfolio consists of operational solar and battery storage distributed generation projects.
The investor launched Fund I in 2017 with capital commitments above its $500m target and has since invested in solar, wind and battery storage projects across the US. According to a press release, the fund’s assets support more than 3,000 GWh of renewable energy generated annually at steady state operations.
In a statement, Chris Moakley, a Managing Partner at Excelsior, said that the exit “validates our differentiated strategy for addressing North American renewable power generation”, while Anne Marie Denman, Co-Founder and Partner at Excelsior, added that the sale confirmed her firm’s ability to “successfully manage the full life cycle of an investment from origination through to realisation”.
James Berner, a Managing Director and Head of the Americas for BlackRock’s Evergreen Infrastructure Partners Fund, said that his firm’s investment “epitomises the fund’s strategy of investing in long-dated infrastructure platforms with potential future growth well aligned with the energy transition and energy security”.
Akin Gump, Morgan Stanley and KeyBanc Capital Markets advised Excelsior throughout the sale process. Latham & Watkins, KPMG, Natural Power and Thorndike Landing advised BlackRock.
