HASI, an investor in climate solutions, has announced its plans to invest in a portfolio of renewable energy assets developed, owned and operated by AES. The agreement reached financial close on December 22, 2023.
As per the agreement, HASI will make a structured equity investment in an approximately 605 MW portfolio of solar and solar-plus-storage assets spanning seven power markets and 11 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Furthermore, the portfolio includes more than 200 operational renewable energy projects, composed primarily of community solar and commercial and industrial solar assets, with more than a third of the total capacity paired with battery energy storage.
In January 2023, HASI announced a common equity investment with AES in an approximately 1.3 GW portfolio of operating utility-scale solar and wind projects. Additionally, HASI and AES’ clean energy business in the US have a six-year track record of successful solar land transactions.
REGlobal’s Views: As the US renewable energy market continues to grow at a rapid pace supported by the enabling Inflation Reduction Act, investors are also looking to have a bigger piece of the pie in the renewables space. Thus, equity financing, which has always remained a preferred source of funding in mature markets, is quite popular in the US renewables market. HASI has recently also invested in Summit Ridge Energy, Bioenergy Devco, and ForeFront Power.
