Stonepeak has acquired interests in Generia Land and Electric Land as part of a strategy to acquire and lease land to renewable energy operators through a newly launched European renewable land aggregation platform.
The real assets investor’s newly launched JouleTerra platform expects to acquire existing land platforms and undeveloped parcels. The platform’s strategy involves obtaining all necessary permitting and grid connections to transform these sites into ready-to-build locations.
JouleTerra’s initial transactions involve acquiring a stake in Generia Land, Solaria Energía y Medio Ambiente’s land platform dedicated to renewables; and making an investment in Electric Land, which is described as Europe’s largest specialist investor and developer of powered land for renewable and flexible energy generation and storage.
Established in 2022, Generia sources, acquires and leases land in Europe to renewable energy projects, including solar, wind and battery storage. Generia currently has thousands of hectares of land, primarily in Spain and Italy, and will acquire additional land with Stonepeak’s investment.
Anthony Borreca, senior MD and co-head of energy at Stonepeak, said: “Generia’s robust pipeline, coupled with Solaria’s established presence in Europe, make it a perfect fit for our newly established independent land aggregation platform, which will look to construct a diversified portfolio of grid-connected sites for critical renewable energy infrastructure across Europe.”
Arturo Díaz-Tejeiro Larrañaga, CEO of Solaria, said: “It is a great honour to partner with a top-tier investor like Stonepeak to build one of Europe’s leading renewable land platforms.
“The region offers significant growth potential for these types of investments, supported by strong governmental support for renewable energy and the energy transition.”
Electric Land’s business is focused on developing and aggregating freehold, grid-connected land that is leased to ready-to-build operators for the purposes of building renewable energy generation and storage infrastructure. The company’s current portfolio of powered land sites comprises 1.1GW across 29 owned sites, and it has a development pipeline of 9GW across the UK, Ireland and Germany.
Foundation Property & Capital, which has previously supported Electric Land’s management team, will also continue to support the business.
Nikolaus Woloszczuk, senior MD at Stonepeak, said: “Since its inception in 2015, Electric Land has assembled a portfolio of high quality assets underpinned by secure grid connections, and an established, diverse tenant base.
“We have strong conviction in Electric Land’s strategy and leadership and believe this provider of essential infrastructure is an excellent fit for Stonepeak’s independent land aggregation platform. We look forward to applying our expertise to drive further growth at Electric Land.”
Ben Lansman, MD at Electric Land, said: “We are excited to partner with Stonepeak in what is the next important and exciting step in our growth strategy for Electric Land.
“Their deep expertise in energy and infrastructure, along with their active ownership approach, makes them an ideal partner as we expand our development pipeline, grow our footprint, and deliver on our mission to support the energy transition through strategic land ownership.”
Borreca said: “JouleTerra represents a compelling, first-mover opportunity for Stonepeak as platforms of this nature backed by a global network such as ours do not yet exist in Europe at scale.
“We look forward to expanding the platform and playing a meaningful role in the development of critical energy transformation-related infrastructure in Europe over the long-term.”
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