KKR Completes Avantus Acquisition; Ireland’s DP Energy Gets Approval For ‘Largest’ Urban Solar Development In North America; EDPR NA, SRP & Meta Partner For 200 MW Solar Plant; Star Catcher Bags Finance For World’s ‘1st’ Space-Based Energy Grid.
900 MW US hybrid project: Brookfield Renewables US has unveiled a new hybrid project with close to 900 MW of clean energy capacity. The Speedway Solar Project will be accompanied by a battery energy storage system (BESS) in Sherman County, Oregon. It has filed a notice of intent (NOI) with the Oregon Department of Energy to develop the project that it says will be one of the largest such facilities in the US state. It is located next to an existing transmission line, which eliminates the need for additional transmission lines for its grid connection. Recently, Primergy grid-connected 690 MW Gemini Solar Project with 380 MW of 4-hour BESS capacity, calling it the largest co-located facility in this space in the country (see North America PV News Snippets: US’ Largest Co-Located Solar & Storage Project & More).
Avantus gets KKR backing: US-based utility-scale solar and storage projects developer Avantus has secured global investment firm KKR as its majority equity stakeholder. KKR had earlier this year signed a definitive agreement to acquire majority stake in Avantus from EIG (see KKR To Acquire Majority Stake In US Solar & Storage Developer). Avantus secured a $522 million development facility arranged by KKR Capital and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) to invest in its growth. The proceeds will help it accelerate the build-out of its pipeline and fund key activities including security postings for power purchase agreements (PPAs), interconnection agreements and procurement deposits. The company’s development portfolio now spans over 30 GW DC of solar and 94 GWh of energy storage across the Western US.
325 MW PV plant in Canada: Ireland-based renewables company DP Energy has secured a green signal to build a 325 MW solar park as the ‘largest’ urban solar development in North America. The Alberta Utilities Commission has given its approval to construct and operate the solar park on a 1,600-acre space in Alberta, Canada. The Saamis Solar Park will be the 2nd largest of any solar project approved in the country, according to DP Energy. Construction on site will begin by 2025, and be complete by February 2027.
200 MW solar plant in Arizona: EDP Renewables North America (EDPR NA) along with Salt River Project (SRP) and Meta unveiled a 200 MW solar park in Arizona, near the town of Coolidge. The Brittlebush Solar Park will enable both SRP and Meta to meet their sustainability and renewable energy goals. All of its capacity will help support Meta’s Mesa, Arizona data center. It is the 3rd renewable energy partnership between EDPR NA and Meta.
$12.25 million for Star Catcher: Space-based energy generation company in the US, Star Catcher Industries has raised $12.25 million in the seed round to build what it terms will be the world’s 1st space-based energy grid. The company says it will build the Star Catcher Network to beam significant levels of broad-spectrum energy to spacecraft in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and beyond. It will deliver energy on demand and at higher concentrations of energy than the Sun to the existing solar arrays of client spacecraft. This will enable the latter to generate up to 5 to 10 times the amount of power they would generate otherwise without retrofit. Star Catcher anticipates the need for 840 MW of power generation to operate more than 40,000 LEO satellites that are estimated to be in operation by 2030.
“By providing spacecraft with higher concentrations of energy to state-of-the-art solar arrays, the Star Catcher Network will significantly magnify space-based power generation to meet this growing demand and enable satellite operators to expand capabilities and uptime while reducing upfront spend,” said Star Catcher. Funders to this round were Initialized Capital and B Capital along with Rogue VC.
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