A Greenbacker Capital Management fund has invested in US hydroelectric power firm Clear Energy Hydro.
Greenbacker Capital said the fund has made a strategic investment in an affiliate of Clear Energy.
Headquartered in the Denver area, Clear Energy acquires existing hydropower facilities and invests in their modernisation. The company currently owns three facilities in New York and plans to use the proceeds from the Greenbacker loan to modernise those stations, as well as to acquire additional plants in the state.
The manager said the latest deal is the fourth investment for the fund, which was set up last year to provide flexible capital to small- and medium-size renewable energy infrastructure companies that are focused on developing distributed power facilities serving high-value markets across the US.
Last month, Greenbacker Capital announced its third deal for the fund as with an investment in Dichotomy Power, an owner and operator of hydroelectric power generation stations across the Northeastern US.
Following the latest deal, Benjamin Baker, the fund’s managing director and principal, said: “Hydropower is a crucial part of the renewable energy landscape across the US, and Greenbacker is proud to support it.
“We believe that Clear Energy Hydro, with its strong management team and unique ability to optimize assets through both physical rehabilitation and revenue model enhancement, will be an important player in the market.”
Michael Prendergast, a partner at Clear Energy Hydro, said: “In Greenbacker, we are very pleased to have found an investor who believes in our mission.
“Moreover, with Greenbacker, we have gained a strategic partner whose expertise in the financing, engineering and operational aspects of renewable energy infrastructure will be an asset that pays dividends for us in the future as we identify new acquisition targets and continue to optimize the performance of our current assets.”
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