Excelsior Energy Capital, an independent North American renewable energy investor, has acquired five ground-mount solar projects from development partner, Nokomis Energy.
The Kingfield Portfolio, located across southern Minnesota, totals 6.3 MW DC and brings Excelsior’s total portfolio of ground-mount solar projects in Minnesota to 21.6 MW DC, all as part of a broader partnership with Nokomis Energy. Excelsior will invest equity in the portfolio at the start of construction and will work with its existing financing partners to arrange the tax equity, construction debt and permanent debt.
“Excelsior is proud to announce this second closing with Nokomis Energy and to achieve completion of construction and start of operations on the first 10 projects in our home state of Minnesota,” says Ryan Fegley, partner at Excelsior.
“Excelsior continues to execute on the acquisition, financing and construction of community solar portfolios which compliment Excelsior’s investments in operational utility-scale wind and solar. We hope to continue to replicate multi-year investment plans with partners like Nokomis Energy and others who are looking for trusted long-term equity investors such as Excelsior,” he adds.
In addition to acquiring its second tranche of projects from Nokomis Energy, Excelsior has achieved commercial operation for the first 10 projects in its Wenonah Portfolio, a 12 project, 15.3 MW DC portfolio of Minnesota ground-mount solar projects acquired from Nokomis Energy last year. The remaining two projects are expected to complete construction in second quarter 2020.
Both the Kingfield and Wenonah Portfolios participate in the Minnesota Community Solar Garden (CSG) program which for Excelsior’s portfolio is administered by Xcel Energy. Under the program, the projects are contracted under 25-year power purchase agreements (PPAs) with a diverse set of non-utility customers such as municipalities, school districts and various commercial customers. The CSG program allows these non-utility customers to offset some or all of their electricity usage from clean power generated by the projects located in their home state.
Photo: Excelsior Energy Capital’s landing page