Clearway Energy, Inc. announced that it has entered into a binding agreement to acquire a 613 MWac operational solar portfolio from Deriva Energy, LLC.
The portfolio spans eight states with capacity and value concentrated in the CAISO and PJM markets, affording Clearway the opportunity to leverage its complementary operating strength in those markets. For 12 assets in the portfolio located in the Western US and comprising of 227 MWac, Clearway will co-invest cash equity interests in a 50/50 joint venture with Fengate Asset Management, whom the Company has an existing relationship with as an investment partner at an operational wind facility. The overall portfolio’s weighted average contract life of 10 years is in line with Clearway’s existing fleet and provides opportunities for Clearway to extend and enhance value through contract extensions and battery hybridization in markets where it has a demonstrated track record of success in asset value enhancement.
After factoring in estimated closing adjustments and proceeds from asset-level financings, including the third-party cash equity investor in a subset of the portfolio, the Company expects its total long-term corporate capital investment in the portfolio to be approximately $210-230 million. The investment is expected to be immediately accretive with a 5-year annual CAFD yield over 12%, providing an incremental five-year average annual asset CAFD of approximately $27 million beginning January 1, 2027.
The transaction is expected to close by the second quarter of 2026. The Company expects to fund the acquisition within its previously disclosed capital allocation framework. The Company has the flexibility to not require incremental equity issuances beyond those already planned in order to fund the acquisition, based on its capital available for allocation net of currently committed growth capital investments.
“We are pleased to announce our execution of a next value-enhanced third-party acquisition, further demonstrating our ability to drive growth in CAFD per share through multiple redundant growth pathways,” said Craig Cornelius, Clearway Energy, Inc.’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “This acquisition leverages our core strength in solar plant operations to generate significantly accretive returns, applying economies of scale from both our distributed and utility scale solar fleets. Further deepening our presence in the CAISO and PJM markets, the acquisition also gives us the opportunity to create upside value in the next decade by applying our proven playbook for battery hybridization and contract extensions in those same markets. This acquisition also puts us in the position to cast our sights towards delivering at the top end or better of our 2027 CAFD per share target range of $2.50 - $2.70, a goal that will also be enabled through our ongoing fleet enhancement program and robust dropdown pipeline. We look forward to sharing more about our future growth outlook in Clearway’s third quarter earnings call later this year.”
