Feb 5 2010
HgCapital’s renewable energy fund, HgCapital Renewable Power Partners, announced three new investments in renewable energy projects; two solar PV projects in Spain and one onshore wind project in UK. These investments helped the gross capital value of this renewable energy fund to exceed €1 billion, making 2009 as the most active year since the fund closed in December 2006.
HgCapital’s renewable energy portfolio, after these investments, includes 19 high-quality projects in operation or under construction and a big development pipeline. HgCapital has acquired a 50% stake in Scout Moor in the UK. The wind farm with capacity of 65 MW was developed by Peel Energy and is located near Manchester. Both the companies intend to expand this joint venture partnership to other projects. With Scout Moor wind farm, HgCapital’s onshore wind portfolio in UK includes: operating wind farms with total capacity of 111 MW; waiting for construction-44 MW and in development pipeline-150 MW.
The two new Spanish solar projects added to HgCapital’s portfolio in Europe includes 12MW operating project located in the region of Castilla La Mancha and an 8 MW project that is being constructed and developed by GA Solar. This project is located in Murcia region and is anticipated to be operational in April 2010. Plenium Partners was its local partner through which HgCapital acquired these projects. Plenium Partners is a merchant banking firm based in Madrid. HgCapital had acquired 35.4MW portfolio from AIG Group in 2009, which was developed by Plenium Partners.