Duke Energy Renewables closes on funding deal
Duke Energy Renewables has closed on $109.4 million in a preferred tax equity funding from Goldman Sachs’ Alternative Energy Investing Group.
The investment will be used to fund a diverse portfolio of approximately 75 megawatts of solar and solar plus storage projects over the next 18 months. The projects will be developed and constructed by Duke Energy Renewables’ subsidiary REC Solar.
The projects will feature ground-mount as well as rooftop commercial and industrial and community solar projects across several states, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts, and Texas.
Goldman Sachs’s investment structure is tailored to finance large, distributed portfolios of renewables assets. This structure allows Duke Energy Renewables to free up capital to continue to invest in its distributed generation portfolio.
“Goldman Sachs’ investment will support Duke Energy Renewables’ continued growth in the distributed energy space, which will further our goals of delivering long-term value to customers and investors,” Chris Fallon, president of Duke Energy Renewables, said. “This is just one more way we’re providing reliable and cost-effective renewable energy to businesses and communities across the United States.”
NextPower Capital served as the financial advisor to Duke Energy Renewables and REC Solar. Hunton Andrews Kurth and O’Melveny & Myers were the transaction legal counsels for Duke Energy Renewables and Goldman Sachs, respectively.
“Our partnership with Duke Energy Renewables demonstrates the benefits of an integrated approach to financing high-quality distributed solar projects at scale. By combining the financing of tax and cash attributes into a single product, Goldman Sachs is able to provide sponsors like Duke Energy Renewables with comprehensive and flexible financing solutions tailored to each individual portfolio’s needs,” Vivek Kagzi, of Goldman Sachs’ Alternative Energy Investing Group, said.
Duke Energy Renewables is a subsidiary of Duke Energy. It operates wind and solar generation facilities across the United States, with a total electric capacity of 3,000 megawatts
