Clean-Energy Powerhouse Lines Up $1.2 Billion to Buy Renewables

Capital Dynamics, one of the biggest buyers of U.S. solar farms, closed a $1.2 billion fund to acquire even more clean-power plants.

Investors in the Clean Energy and Infrastructure VII JV LLC fund include Dutch asset manager APG, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System and a unit of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, according to a statement Tuesday. All three were also primary investors in an earlier Capital Dynamics clean energy and infrastructure fund.

Capital Dynamics manages 2.3 gigawatts of solar assets and is at the forefront of a wave of asset managers backed by institutional investors hungry for dependable, long-term returns from renewable energy. In February it agreed to pay  almost a billion dollars for solar-farm owner  8Point3 Energy Partners LP.

“A lot of people in the power sector don’t know Capital Dynamics. When I say to them, ‘oh by the way, we’re the second-biggest buyer of solar,’” said John Breckenridge, head of its clean energy infrastructure business, “then people wake up.”

Capital Dynamics plans to use the latest fund to invest in U.S. renewables — including energy storage — and is aiming to deploy it within the next 18 months, Breckenridge said.