Global private capital investment firm The Carlyle Group announced today the launch of Copia Power, a new wholly owned utility scale sustainable infrastructure platform, initially focused on developing, owning, and operating large-scale renewable energy generation in the U.S.
Copia, wholly-owned by Carlyle, is being launched with the acquisition of a 6 GW U.S. solar and storage development pipeline from energy developer and operator Tenaska, and with a strategic partnership with renewable energy solutions company Birch Infrastructure. Tenaska will continue to work on the development of the portfolio. Birch, has agreed to pursue all of its renewable development activities through the new partnership, and has contributed 800MW of its contracted renewable energy supply agreements and associated development assets.
Carlyle stated that it anticipates deploying up to $700M in capital through the Copia platform, and arranging over $6B in project finance to advance the development and build out of assets.
The launch comes as investors become increasingly focused on opportunities created by the emerging transition towards lower-impact sources of energy, as countries mobilize to limit the warming effect of greenhouse gas emissions, including multi-billion dollar plans by the Biden administration to revamp energy infrastructure in the U.S.
Private investment companies are particularly well positioned for investments in large scale energy infrastructure projects, and many – including Carlyle – have been actively positioning to ramp their energy transition-focused investments.
Birch Infrastructure CEO Jim Howell said:
“Using renewable energy is now a must-have for every large company because customers, investors and employees all insist on knowing their company’s environmentalEnvironmental criteria consider how a company performs as a steward of nature. More footprint.”
Copia will be lead by Ryan Galeria, and Katie Heath, who both joined from AES Clean Energy, and Arthur Sonnenfeld, formerly at SoftBank Group’s SB Energy, and supported by Carlyle board members Pooja Goyal and David Gluck.
Goyal said:
“The formation of Copia Power and relationships with Tenaska and Birch highlight Carlyle’s continued commitment and focus on finding differentiated and attractive investment opportunities that will drive the energy transition. We feel strongly that the combination of leading and proven management teams such as Tenaska and Birch, along with the scale and capabilities of our platform at Carlyle, we can drive significant growth and accelerate the development of utility scale sustainable infrastructure in the United States.”
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