Global investment firm Carlyle has invested $350m (€353m) in Aspen Power Partners to help grow the US renewable-energy business.
Aspen Power said the investment supports its “organic and acquisition-driven growth strategy” targeting the community, multifamily, and commercial & industrial (C&I) solar and storage markets.
In line with the growth strategy, Aspen Power has acquired Safari Energy from PPL Corporation. The deal involves Aspen Power acquiring Safari’s complete development platform including its 220MW portfolio of operating and under-construction distributed generation solar assets.
Founded in 2008, Safari has acquired or developed more than 600 C&I solar projects nationwide.
Aspen Power said with Carlyle’s investment and the close of the Safari acquisition, the company is on track to achieve gigawatt scale by mid-decade.
Pooja Goyal, CIO of Carlyle’s infrastructure group, said: “At Carlyle, we believe investing in renewables includes investing across the value chain. This includes investing in not only large utility-scale renewable energy assets, but also community solar and distributed generation more broadly.
“We are very excited about our partnership with Aspen and look forward to facilitating the growth of their business into a distributed generation platform of scale.”
JB Oldenburg, managing director on the renewable and sustainable energy team at Carlyle, said: “We are thrilled to support Aspen at this inflexion point and believe the platform is well-positioned to benefit from the transformational shift we see in decarbonising the economy.
“Our investment in Aspen is a commitment to accelerating the widespread accessibility and availability of solar and storage, which we believe is accretive to our portfolio by supporting this decade’s ambitious renewable energy and climate change targets.”
Jackson Lehr, co-founder and CFO of Aspen Power Partners, said: “During this critical climate decade, as demand for solar, storage and electric vehicle charging continues to expand, the Carlyle investment and Safari transaction provide a clear path forward for our team to execute a step-change in the scale of our impact.”
Jorge E Vargas, co-founder and CEO of Aspen Power Partners, said: “We want to thank our existing investors Ultra Capital, Lombard Odier, Redball Ventures, and Two Seven Ventures for supporting our growth to date and welcome the Carlyle team as our partners for this next stage of growth.
“We also welcome our newest teammates from Safari and look forward to all we can accomplish together in the months and years ahead.”
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