Italian developer Falck Renewables and Eni US have signed a deal to acquire a 222MW portfolio, comprising operational wind and solar assets, plus projects in development, in the US.
The portfolio acquisition, from Building Energy Holdings US (BEHUS), comprises 62MW of operating wind and solar farms and up to 160MW of wind projects in development.
BEHUS was set up by Building Energy to develop US renewables projects.
Falck Renewables will have a 51% share and Eni New Energy US will have a 49% stake in the portfolio, through the joint venture Novis Renewables.
A wholly owned subsidiary of Novis will acquire the equity of all the projects, the development assets, and the other activities upon for a total purchase price of $32.5m.
The closing is expected by year end.
The transaction spans five operating solar plants totalling 31.59MW and a 30MW wind farm in Iowa, all of which ell energy through power purchase agreements.
Falck Renewables North America will provide technical and administrative asset management on behalf of Novis to manage the newly acquired projects post-closing of the transaction.
Novis will also acquire the development and operations team and a wind and solar development pipeline of BEHUS, comprising two late-stage wind projects in the western US, which could be up to 80MW each in size.
“BEHUS is the inaugural transaction of the strategic partnership with Eni that closed in March 2020 and fits squarely into our joint business plan contributing to the sustainable growth targets of both partners”, said Toni Volpe, CEO of Falck Renewables.
“We are also adding onshore wind both in operations and development to our portfolio in the USA strengthening our development and operations team,” he added.
Novis Renewables Holdings is a 51% – 49% subsidiary of Falck Renewables and ENI New Energy US, which operates 113MW of solar assets and a 6.6 megawatt-hour battery system in the US.