ArcLight Announces Operating Focused Renewables Initiative and New Wind Investment

­ArcLight Infrastructure Partners (together with its affiliates, “ArcLight”) announced the launch of operating focused renewables investment initiative SkyVest Renewables (“SkyVest”) and concurrent acquisition of a 160 MW operating wind farm.

SkyVest, formed by ArcLight to operate and optimize acquired assets, builds on ArcLight’s deep history in renewables since 2001 and brings together an experienced and tenured team to provide transformational management and operational best practices for ArcLight’s investments in wind and solar infrastructure.

ArcLight is providing an initial $500 million capital commitment to the initiative, and as part of this, concurrently closing on the acquisition of a 160 MW operating wind farm located in the Midland Basin in Texas that reached commercial operations in 2020. SkyVest will leverage its internal expertise and ArcLight’s resources to drive a value-enhancing operational and commercialization strategy.

ArcLight and SkyVest will target operating utility-scale wind and solar assets in North America. Through the implementation of operational, technical, commercial, financial and redevelopment best practices, assets managed by SkyVest will have the potential to generate significant near-term cash flow while protecting against downside risk. SkyVest will also augment ArcLight’s existing dedicated in-house operations resources in asset management, data analytics, and project risk management.

“ArcLight has a deep history of investing in renewables dating back to our first fund, focused on bringing operating excellence, innovation, power expertise, and brownfield development skills to drive value and mitigate risk,” said Dan Revers, Managing Partner of ArcLight. “SkyVest augments our existing in-house capabilities to implement these value-added levers. We see a growing opportunity to capitalize on this strategy with a continued disciplined and highly selective investment approach.”

SkyVest is led by a group of experienced and tenured executives including President Michael Murphy, previously the SVP and CIO of Clearway Energy, and CFO Michael Current, previously the SVP of Finance of JERA Americas. The executive team is complemented by an accomplished team of senior advisors and board members including Mark Albenze, former CEO Global Service at Siemens-Gamesa; Tom Kiernan, former CEO of American Clean Power/AWEA; and Scott Hall, former CEO of Great River Hydro.

“I am excited to partner with ArcLight, which I view as one of the leading domestic renewable infrastructure investors,” said Mr. Murphy. “ArcLight has a multi-decade history of making renewable infrastructure investments, driven by a value-added approach and operational resources that I believe are imperative to driving value and mitigating risk in the renewables market today.”

“As the renewables sector continues to grow and mature, the operational and commercial requirements are changing, which in turn creates the opportunity to apply a value-add skill set compared to the ‘growth-at-all-cost’ orientation of the past,” said Carter Ward, Partner at ArcLight. “Similar to ArcLight’s prior operating renewable investments – including Leeward, TerraGen and Great River Hydro – we believe SkyVest has the resources required in today’s market to become one of the leading operators of wind and solar assets in the U.S.”