Renewable Energy Is Still Alive And Kicking In The US

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Despite a renewed effort to prop up the shrinking US coal industry, renewable energy projects keep on attracting global energy investors. The pullback on federal support renewables still stings, but at least the folks overseas still believe there is money to be made from clean kilowatts in the US. As the saying goes, money talks…

$475 Million More For Renewable Energy In Texas

Exhibit A is the Maryland-based renewable energy developer Sunraycer Renewables. On April 8 Sunraycer announced that it has closed a $475 million project financing facility with the leading global financial firms MUFG Bank, Ltd., Nomura Securities International, Inc. and Norddeutsche Landesbank Girzonentrale.

“This deal brings the total capital raised by Sunraycer to $675mm over the last six months,” Sunraycer noted.

Sunraycer intends to pump the financing into Texas, where it is building its Gaia and Midpoint solar-plus-storage projects. Together, the two projects will add 241 MWac of solar and 125 MWac of battery storage to the Texas grid when they commence operating later this year, proving once again that solar is the quickest way to add more kilowatts to the nation’s energy profile.

Neither project is particularly large by today’s standards. However, they do represent Sunraycer’s focus on bringing smaller-scale projects to life in the growing field of data center and industrial power, where energy consumers are eager to get their hands on more electricity as quickly as possible.

“Sunraycer’s Accelerant Program offers a differentiated approach by working with smaller developers, offering flexible capital solutions and providing access to institutional O&M, energy management and generation management services,” the company explains.

“Gaia and Midpoint will be instrumental in supporting the increased demand for energy from manufacturing and data centers in Texas over the next several years,” They add.

$1 Billion More For Renewable Energy In The US

For some even bigger news, take a look at what the Minnesota-based renewable energy investor Excelsior Energy Capital just did. On April 8, the firm announced the final close of its Excelsior Renewable Energy Investment Fund II, totaling more than $1 billion.

That’s about double the amount of Excelsior’s Fund I, which closed at $505 million in 2021. It’s also a full $250 million more than Excelsior’s initial target of $750 million for Fund II. “Fund II will continue Excelsior’s strategy of investing equity in solar, energy storage, wind, and other energy transition projects across the United States,” the company explains.

Once again demonstrating the role of overseas investors in the US renewable energy transition, Excelsior notes that Fund II is anchored by the Development Bank of Japan Inc. The fund also attracted other limited partner investors from Japan, and from Europe, Australia, and the Middle East as well as the US.

“The new fund features strong support from returning Fund I investors and includes a broad mix of institutional capital, such as pension plans, insurance companies, fund-of-funds, diversified asset managers, endowments, family offices, and others,” Excelsior emphasized.

Excelsior has not been letting the renewable energy grass grow under its feet. As of April 8 Fund II was already halfway spent, covering 15 renewable energy investments with a combined generating capacity of 2.25 gigawatts. That’s in addition to the 1.95 gigawatts’ worth of renewable energy projects launched by Fund I.

In the same announcement, Excelsior also reminded everyone that Lydian Energy is its first portfolio company within Fund II.

Lydian currently lists 15 solar and storage projects in its portfolio for a combined total of 3.6 gigawatts, located in Texas, New Mexico, and New York.

The Unstoppable Momentum Of Solar Energy

The news from Sunraycer and Excelsior follows on the heels of several other significant contributions to the US energy transition by overseas investors. That includes the Netherlands-based firm AIP Management. Last week AIP announced that it is investing $500 million in the leading independent US solar energy developer Silicon Ranch. The solar developer has amassed a solar portfolio totaling 3.6 gigawatts, and is working towards a total of 10 gigawatts by 2030.

“The transaction reflects AIP’s conviction in the long-term fundamentals of the US clean energy sector and marks its second investment in a renewables platform following a previous transaction in Europe,” AIP explained.

Silicon Ranch is a familiar face on the pages of CleanTechnica, having established a renewable energy development model that supports the soil restoration goals of regenerative agriculture.

AIP also picked up on another interesting element of the company’s business plan. “As a result of its land ownership strategy, Silicon Ranch maintains long-term optionality to re-power and re-contract existing assets, yielding additional upside for an increasingly scarce asset class,” AIP notes.

Renewable Energy’s Secret Weapon: Repowering

That’s…interesting. Repowering has already become an important feature of the wind industry, in which developers replace outdated systems with more powerful turbines on land that is already grid-connected and permitted for renewable energy. Some repowering projects are aimed at reducing the number of turbines at a particular site without losing generating capacity, while others are aimed at increasing capacity.

Now the solar industry is having a turn at repowering. Solar panels are typically warrantied for 25 years and can continue generating electricity long after that. However, solar power plants lose efficiency over time as the panels, inverters, and other hardware age.

The German renewable energy developer BayWa r.e. is front and center in the solar repowering movement. In a recent interview with PVTech, the company’s head of revamping and repowering in Europe, Tomaso Charlemont, explained that revamping seeks to restore a solar array to its initial efficiency. In contrast, repowering focuses on optimizing land use. Charlemont cited an improvement in electricity yield of up to 40% and an improvement in land use efficiency by up to 50% for repowering projects.

That’s land use efficiency factor is an important consideration as solar developers in Europe and elsewhere scramble for a shrinking share of available land for renewable energy projects.

Meanwhile, Here In The US …

Despite the interest of overseas investors in pursuing renewable energy opportunities in the US, on April 8 President Trump issued another order aimed at force-feeding more coal back into the nation’s power generation profile. The Associated Press ran the story under the headline, “Trump signs executive orders to boost coal, a reliable but polluting energy source.”

You can say that again. In addition to the outdoor air pollution inhaled by everyone outside of a coal mine, coal miners also face a leathal threat from black lung disease. “Coal worker’s pneumoconiosis (CWP), commonly known as “black lung disease,” occurs when coal dust is inhaled,” the American Lung Association notes. 

Black lung disease was once a common cause of premature mortality among US coal miners, but a federally funded early detection and treatment program succeeded in reducing the death rate to a fraction of its former self. Oh, wait, never mind. Practically everyone working on that program just got their jobs axed at the Trump chopping block.

If you have any thoughts about that, drop a note in the comment thread. Better yet, find your representatives in Congress and let them know what you think.

Photo (cropped): Renewable energy projects in the US are still attracting overseas investors, despite the pullback on federal support for wind, solar, and other renewable resources (courtesy of Sunraycer Renewables).