US renewable energy major Brookfield Renewable has agreed to spend up to US$2 billion in order to acquire both Scout Clean Energy (Scout) and Standard Solar, taking the company’s total investment in North America this year to US$3.5 billion.
Announced yesterday (29 September), the move will see Brookfield acquire Scout for US$1 billion with the potential to invest an additional $350 million to support the business’ development activities.
Scout’s portfolio includes a pipeline of over 22,000MW of wind, solar and storage projects across 24 states, including almost 2,500MW of under construction and advanced-stage projects.
“Scout is pleased to be sponsored going forward by an industry-leading partner to help Scout continue to grow our rapidly expanding pipeline of wind, solar and battery storage projects across the United States,” said Michael Rucker, CEO and founder of Scout Clean Energy.
During the same announcement, Brookfield also said it was to acquire US developer Standard Solar for US$540 million, again with the potential to invest an additional US$160 million to support the company’s growth.
Standard Solar is an owner and operator of commercial and community distributed solar, with end-to-end development capabilities, Brookfield said in a media release. Standard Solar has roughly 500MW of operating and under construction contracted assets and a development pipeline of almost 2,000MW.
“Through this acquisition, which provides additional large-scale access to capital, Standard Solar is poised for massive growth, enabling us to contribute in an even more significant way to the clean energy transition,” said Scott Wiater, president and CEO of Standard Solar.
Both Scout and Standard Solar will continue to operate as independent businesses within the Brookfield Renewable US platform, the company said, adding the transactions will be invested through the Brookfield Global Transition Fund I (“BGTF I”), the “largest fund in the world focused on the energy transition”.
Co-led by former Bank of England governor and Brookfield vice chair, Mark Carney, and Brookfield Renewable CEO, Connor Teskey, BGTF I has raised $15 billion to invest across a range of transition opportunities.
As of this summer, Canada-headquartered Brookfield Asset Management had US$725 billion in assets under management, including US$68 billion in its renewable power business, according to the company.
