Swell pockets USD 120m for solar and battery VPPs in US

Swell Energy Inc has raised USD 120 million (EUR 116.8m) to accelerate its ambition to deploy 26,000 energy storage systems at homes and businesses across the US and bring its total solar and battery virtual power plants (VPPs) to 600 MWh, the California-based company said today.

Swell currently assists utilities in providing cleaner energy and reducing the grid’s reliance on fossil fuel peaker plants in utility territories across Hawaii, California and New York.

The funding round was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Greenbacker Development Opportunities Fund I, LP, with an Ares Infrastructure Opportunities fund and Ontario Power Generation Pension Fund also taking part. It takes Swell’s total equity capitalisation to USD 152 million.

“Utilities and investors have understood the importance of virtual power plants for some time now; this funding further signals that the capital markets see tremendous value in this new asset class,” according to Swell Energy chief executive Suleman Khan.

“By coordinating distributed energy resources across the grid to intelligently meet fluctuating demand, Swell’s AI- and machine learning-driven platform helps address a major challenge of the energy transition, while also lowering customers’ bills,” commented Ben Parton, director at SoftBank Group.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.973)

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