Clearway Energy agrees to buy 413 MW of US wind farms

US renewables developer Clearway Energy Inc (NYSE:CWEN) has sealed a binding agreement to acquire 413 MW of wind farms in Texas, Nebraska and Wyoming in a cash-and-debt deal worth some USD 415 million (EUR 394.7m).

The vendor is US-based Capistrano Wind Partners LLC, Clearway said on Tuesday. Under the deal, the buyer will pay USD 255 million in cash to take hold of the assets and will also assume some USD 160 million of non-recourse debt.

The Capistrano portfolio includes five wind farms that were commissioned between 2008 and 2012. All of them operate under power purchase agreements (PPAs) with investment-grade counterparties and have a weighted average remaining contract life of around 10 years. Subsidiaries of Clearway Energy Group are handling the operations, maintenance and asset management of the plants and will continue performing these services following the acquisition.

Clearway Energy noted it has meanwhile signed a development agreement with its parent that will see the Clearway Group pay USD 10 million to partially finance the purchase, which is seen to be wrapped up in the second half of this year. The arrangement will give it the exclusive right to repower the projects at a later stage.

At present, Clearway Energy has more than 5 GW of installed wind and solar power capacity in its portfolio. The company estimates that the new assets will provide incremental annual levered asset CAFD on a five-year average basis of between USD 12 million and USD 14 million, starting in 2023.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.951)

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