The Carlyle Group, a US-based alternative asset manager, has agreed to acquire six operating wind farms in New York state with a combined capacity of 612MW, from Noble Environmental Power for an undisclosed price.
Image: Carlyle Group to acquire six wind farms in New York state from Noble Environmental Power. Photo: courtesy of Windtech at English Wikipedia.
The acquisition of the wind farms in New York along with a dedicated operations platform will be done through the newly-established affiliate Zephyr Wind Energy, said Carlyle Group.
The transaction includes three wind farms in Clinton County with a combined capacity of 279MW, two wind farms in Wyoming County with a combined capacity of 227MW and a 106MW wind farm in Franklin County.
The six wind farms put together currently meet 29% of the wind power consumed in New York State.
Carlyle managing director and Carlyle Power Partners head Matt O’Connor said: “We are excited to acquire this platform, which brings important diversification to the Carlyle Power Partners portfolio. Zephyr is our first wind investment and provides an opportunity to help New York state meet its clean energy goals.
“Additionally, the Noble operations platform we are acquiring has a history of strong operations, engineering innovation and community relations, which go hand in hand with our goal of providing best-in-class management to power generation facilities.”
According to the Carlyle Group, the total power generation portfolio of Carlyle Power Partners, following the completion of the acquisition of the Noble platform, will increase to nearly 7GW.
It also revealed that equity capital for the acquisition will come from Carlyle Power Partners II.
Noble president and CEO Kay McCall said: “Carlyle’s extensive experience in the power industry makes it a fantastic owner of the largest wind generation platform in New York.
“We are pleased that Carlyle has chosen to build on Noble’s tradition of operational excellence in order to generate clean energy for years to come.”
The acquisition of the six wind farms in New York by the Carlyle Group will be subject to regulatory approvals and other customary conditions, following which it is likely to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2018.