Brookfield Renewable has agreed to acquire Scout Clean Energy for $1 billion with the potential to invest an additional $350 million to support the business’ development activities ($270 million in total net to BEP). Scout’s portfolio includes over 1,200 MW of operating wind assets, including 400 MW managed on behalf of third parties, and a pipeline of over 22,000 MW of wind, solar and storage projects across 24 states, including almost 2,500 MW of under construction and advanced-stage projects.

Brookfield Renewable also announced the closing of its acquisition of Standard Solar for consideration of $540 million with the potential to invest an additional $160 million to support the business’ growth initiatives ($140 million in total net to BEP). Standard Solar is an owner and operator of commercial and community distributed solar, with end-to-end development capabilities and a strong track record of delivering high-quality assets. Standard Solar has approximately 500 MW of operating and under construction contracted assets and a robust development pipeline of almost 2,000 MW and a strong team to execute on significant growth opportunities across several high value solar markets in the U.S., such as New York, Maryland, Minnesota and Maine.

“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. We’re looking forward to joining the Brookfield Renewable portfolio, one of the world’s largest renewable energy platforms. Our two companies share a mutual passion for renewables and company cultures that recognize and amplify excellence and equity — we are the ideal match,” 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 U.S. platform.

“We are thrilled to be putting more dollars to work in our U.S. renewables business. We underwrote both transactions without the benefit of the Inflation Reduction Act so the additional incentives now available represent a significant boost to each business,” said Connor Teskey, CEO of Brookfield Renewable. “Our development pipeline in the United States is now close to 60,000 MW and is well diversified across wind, utility-scale solar, distributed generation and energy storage. Combined with our existing fleet we are well positioned for continued growth as owners and operators of one of the largest diversified clean power businesses in the country.”

News item from Brookfield Renewables

The post Brookfield Renewable acquires Scout Clean Energy appeared first on Windpower Engineering & Development.

Purchased from International Turbine Research in 2018, Scout returned the wind farm in Pacheco State Park to operation and will rename the project the Gonzaga Ridge Wind Farm.

“We are excited to expand our partnership with Peninsula Clean Energy and the opportunity to continue to supply clean, renewable power to the customers of San Mateo County and Los Banos in Merced County while we complete our upgrade plans to the Gonzaga Ridge Wind facility,” said Michael Rucker, CEO, and founder of Scout Clean Energy. “In addition, we will continue to generate royalty revenues for the California Department of Parks and Recreation to help fund the operations of the park.”

The project will replace the existing 162-turbine wind farm in Pacheco State Park, originally built nearly four decades ago, with a much-smaller fleet of far more powerful state-of-the-art turbines that are expected to be operational by around the end of October 2024.

While the existing 162 turbines produce 16.5 MW, Scout is planning a total Gonzaga Ridge capacity of 147.5 MW of wind energy and a 50-MW, four-hour battery energy storage system. The completed project upgrades would be one of the first repower projects on state land in California.

Construction, which will begin in late 2023, has a labor agreement between contractors and national unions.

“The Gonzaga Ridge project is an important tool in Peninsula Clean Energy’s efforts to provide 24/7 renewable power, with the added bonus of being located near our new Los Banos service territory,” said Jan Pepper, Peninsula Clean Energy’s CEO . “It is also a great example of how state-of-the-art wind farms have become far more efficient and powerful in providing clean and affordable energy across our territories during both peak and non-peak hours.”

Gonzaga Ridge will be located about 10 miles from the 200-MW Wright Solar Project, which in January 2020 became the largest renewable energy installation at the time ever built for a Community Choice Aggregation agency. Wright Solar was Peninsula Clean Energy’s first project located in Merced County and California’s Central Valley.

“Not only is this the second big renewable development right in our backyard, but it also smartly taps into the tremendous wind power available at Pacheco Park particularly at night and in spring,” said Los Banos Mayor Tom Faria. “This helps further diversify the natural, clean and affordable power that Merced County can increasingly produce directly for our residents.”

News item from Peninsula Clean Energy

The post Repowered California wind farm will produce 9 times the power appeared first on Windpower Engineering & Development.

Scout Clean Energy’s Bitter Ridge Wind Farm in Indiana. Scout Clean Energy

Scout commenced greenfield development of Bitter Ridge in 2016 and has successfully progressed the project through all permitting and procurement activities, commencing construction in August 2019. The Bitter Ridge wind farm is the fourth utility-scale wind project to be constructed by the Scout team and will use the latest generation GE 2.82-MW wind turbine.

Reaching commercial operations at Bitter Ridge will bring Scout’s operational portfolio of onshore wind energy generation to 843 MW spanning the three power markets of ERCOT, PJM and SPP with more than 4,000 MW in its active development pipeline across wind, solar PV and battery storage.

“We were able to complete the project safely and still meet most of our schedule. The success is a real credit to Scout’s construction management team, our suppliers, contractors and financiers who have worked tirelessly to get Bitter Ridge completed, especially under the difficult circumstances and widespread disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Michael Rucker, CEO and founder of Scout Clean Energy. “Safety is always our number one priority, and we are proud to report that — due to diligent health and safety measures put in place for the protection of all workers — construction was completed without a single case of the COVID-19 virus being contracted on-site. Several supply chain challenges were also resolved through effective teamwork and collaboration with our contractors and key equipment suppliers. To complete construction without any material delays to the project schedule is significant and we thank all those involved for their outstanding efforts.”

As previously announced by Scout, a 15-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) has been signed with Constellation, an Exelon company, for the long-term purchase of renewable energy and capacity generated by Bitter Ridge. Scout entered into a fixed-price balance-of-plant construction agreement with Mortenson Construction who completed the work on schedule. The Bitter Ridge asset management and post-construction operations will be undertaken by Scout.

The project has a tax incentive agreement in place with Jay County which will result in $1.56 million in economic development payments being made by Bitter Ridge for the benefit of several local community initiatives, $780,000 of which has already been paid by Scout under the terms of the economic development agreement. It is estimated that the county will receive more than $18 million in tax revenues over the expected life of the project, with over half going directly to Jay County Schools.

The completion of the construction of Bitter Ridge follows the final commissioning of Scout’s 180 MW Heart of Texas wind farm in McCullough County, Texas earlier in 2020.

News item from Scout Clean Energy

The post Scout Clean Energy’s 130-MW Bitter Ridge wind farm comes online appeared first on Windpower Engineering & Development.