New York's CleanCapital Acquires Greenbacker Commercial Solar Projects in 13 States

Independent power generation and investment firm CleanCapital is expanding its string of growth moves with the acquisition of 64 operational commercial solar projects from Greenbacker this summer.

The deal announced Tuesday morning includes more than 51 MW in solar capacity across 13 U.S. States that were originally developed or owned by Greenbacker, formerly known as Greenbacker Renewable Energy.  Many of those projects directly serve mission-critical customers such as municipal, university, school and hospital entities, and others are providing on-site power for commercial customers.

Earlier this summer, New York-based CleanCapital acquired 27 MW of solar and 25 MWh of battery storage capacity in Massachusetts and California from Pacifico Energy. The company now holds more than $1.5 billion in middle-market solar, battery storage, agrivoltaics and decarbonization infrastructure projects around the U.S.

“Continued investment in operating assets is critical to satisfying ever-increasing energy demand across the U.S.,” said Julia Bell, chief investment officer at CleanCapital, in a statement. “This portfolio is a textbook example of both the value of distributed generation assets and the opportunities that accompany portfolios like this one. No other platform can match CleanCapital's expertise in valuing, conducting due diligence, and managing diverse assets like these at scale.”

Greenbacker itself has been a major project developer in low-carbon energy projects, including the 674-MW Cider solar project, valued at $1 billion and called the largest such development in New York state. The renaming from Greenbacker Renewable Energy, announced earlier this year, reflects a refocusing of its operations to “manage multiple energy transition-focused strategies,” the company said.

“We are pleased to collaborate with CleanCapital on a deal that delivers high-quality, high-impact assets, while supporting our strategic focus on building larger-scale clean power projects that accelerate the transition to a more resilient and sustainable U.S. energy system,” said Dan De Boer, Greenbacker’s interim CEO.

De Boer was named interim CEO earlier this year following the retirement of previous CEO Charles Wheeler. Greenbacker Renewable Energy, despite its project successes, posted a $242 million net loss in 2024, according to reports.

CleanCapital, meanwhile, now owns one of the largest commercial solar portfolios in the nation. The developer expanded its distributed energy project credit facility with energy transition and agribusiness financier Rabobank earlier this year.

“For nearly a decade now CleanCapital has built its reputation for efficiency and certainty to transact with portfolio acquisitions like this one (with Greenbacker),” stated Alyssa Rinaldi, Senior Director, Business Development at CleanCapital. “We look forward to continuing to grow our portfolio with quality projects from respected partners like Greenbacker.”

Despite the Republican and Trump Administration’s ending of solar and wind production tax credits later this decade, most forecasts call for solar and battery storage installation to continue growing as they have steadily. In its 2024 global energy outlook report, oil and gas giant ExxonMobil estimated that hydro, wind, solar and geothermal would more than double their stake in the global energy mix by 2050 from 6% to 15% of a nearly 700 quadrillion British thermal unit market.

CleanCapital was founded by its CEO Thomas Byrne 10 years ago and has attracted financial backers including private equity giant BlackRock, CarVal Investors and John Hancock. The company now owns solar capacity in about half of the U.S. states.