Financing accelerates development of new solar and wind projects in the United States
KKR Leads Investment in Arevia Power. (Credit: WikimediaImages from Pixabay)
-KKR, a leading global investment firm, today announced that KKR has led a significant structured investment in Arevia Power (“Arevia” or the “Company”), a U.S. renewable energy developer, with strategic participation by GCM Grosvenor, a leading global alternative asset management solutions provider. The investment will support the Company’s accelerated growth and development of new solar and wind projects throughout the United States.
Founded in 2015, Arevia is a dedicated solar and wind project developer that originates, permits, and manages renewable energy projects through their lifecycle. Currently, Arevia is advancing a multi-gigawatt (“GW”) portfolio of early-stage projects across the country. Arevia’s projects are responsibly sited and aim to meet local and regional energy demand with a focus on mitigating environmental impacts and minimizing impacts to surrounding communities. Arevia’s founders, industry veterans Mark Boyadjian and Ricardo Graf, have a demonstrated track record of success, having fully developed over 2 GW of utility-scale solar photovoltaic infrastructure.
In tandem with the investment, Arevia has executed a Responsible Contractor Policy (“RCP”) for its entire clean energy portfolio throughout the United States. The RCP actively promotes a highly skilled workforce with a strong commitment to health and safety on the job, fair wages, and benefits, and future workforce development.
“Now is a critical time for the energy transition, and we are elated by this milestone that gives us the flexible capital needed and the right partners to expand our solar and wind project pipeline throughout the country in a thoughtful way.” said Mr. Boyadjian, Managing Partner at Arevia. “KKR is an outstanding new strategic partner with deep renewables and infrastructure experience, and GCM Grosvenor is an equally accomplished infrastructure investor who has also been particularly successful in investing in partnership with organized labor groups. Together, this platform investment and new relationship with two world-class investment firms will super-charge our development of clean energy solutions while delivering good-paying jobs and leading the way on responsible development.”
“We’re thrilled to build on our strategy of investing behind premier developers like Arevia as the need and demand for renewable energy rapidly accelerates,” said Samuel Mencoff, a Director on KKR’s asset-based finance team. “Arevia’s experience successfully executing critical development projects and deep network position it at the forefront of the industry amid strong economic and public policy tailwinds. We look forward to supporting the company in its efforts to shift toward cleaner sources of energy supply.”
“With our investment, we are helping Arevia pursue its mission to drive change by building large-scale renewable infrastructure projects,” said Akhil Unni, Managing Director at GCM Grosvenor. “Not only are we putting capital to work in a way that helps support environmental sustainability and meet applicable renewable portfolio standards, but we are also proud of Arevia’s commitment to an organized skilled workforce.”
Since 2011, KKR and its subsidiaries have deployed over $15 billion in equity to invest in renewable assets, such as solar and wind, which have an operational power generation capacity of over 23 GW, as of December 31, 2021. KKR is making its investment in Arevia from its managed insurance accounts. The investment from GCM Grosvenor will come from its infrastructure practice.
Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP and Munish Dayal, Arevia’s outside general counsel, served as legal advisors to Arevia Power. Amis, Patel & Brewer LLP served as legal advisor to KKR and Allen & Overy served as legal advisor to GCM Grosvenor.
Source: Company Press Release