AIP Management has agreed to acquire an equity stake from Clearway Energy Group, in Pine Forest, a 300MWac solar PV and 200MW/400MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) project in Texas, US.
The investor announced its agreement to acquire a 49.99% equity stake in Pine Forest from IPP Clear Energy Group on 1 April. AIP says the total investment is approximately US$200 million.
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Pine Forest is located in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) North market, near to Dallas, Texas and Fort Worth, Texas transmission networks.
The project is under construction, with an expected commercial operation date (COD) of late Q4 2025.
Clearway will provide operations and maintenance oversight and asset management services, retaining a 50.01% equity stake in Pine Forest.
AIP says the solar PV capacity of the project will be fully contracted through long-term virtual power purchase agreements (PPAs) with corporate offtakers.
The BESS portion of the project will be used to participate in ERCOT’s wholesale energy and ancillary services market.
AIP is a renewable energy investment firm with global operations, majority-owned by Nordic financial group Storebrand. The company claims to have invested in approximately 7GW of renewable energy assets.
The investment firm owns two projects in California with Global Atlantic Financial Group, which in 2021 saw Mitsubishi Power Americas and Powin Energy appointed to retrofit 640MWh of batteries.
AIP has shared equity with Clearway in other BESS projects as well, including the 186MW/744MWh Lorax BESS in Riverside County, California.
Clearway owns 40% of that project, with AIP taking the majority, 60%. The project is similarly co-located with solar PV facilities. The PV facilities appear to be operational and AIP’s website says that the BESS was expected to reach commercial operation in 2024, but there does not appear to be an update on the project’s progress.
Also, in California, AIP owns 49% of the 160MW/640MWh Zion BESS projects located in Kern and Fresno County. Southern Power owns 51% of the projects.
As reported by Energy-Storage.news at the time, Southern Power turned the projects online in March 2022.
At that time, it was also announced that both systems had a PPA with Southern California Edison (SCE).
According to Clearway’s website, the company has 3 standalone utility-scale BESS projects.
This includes the 113.5MW Daggett BESS in San Bernadino County, California and the 147MW Rosamund Central BESS in Kern County, California.
The most recent update came in March when Clearway started construction on its 1,280MWh Honeycomb BESS portfolio in Utah.
In all, the company claims its portfolio is comprised of approximately 11.8GW of generating capacity across 26 states.
