By Kelsey Misbrener | May 14, 2019 Excelsior Energy Capital, an independent North American renewable energy investor, announced that its North American Renewable Energy Fund has agreed to partner with Nokomis Partners on the construction and operation of a 16.5-MW solar portfolio. Excelsior will be the long-term owner of the portfolio. In addition, Excelsior and Nokomis are already working on their next portfolio, seeking to leverage this experience to streamline future development. The ground-mount solar projects are located throughout Minnesota and sell power under the Minnesota Solar Community Garden program to municipal and commercial customers. Excelsior is raising the tax equity, construction and permanent debt financing for the projects. Construction is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2019. Anne Marie DeMent, a partner at Excelsior, said, “Excelsior is pleased to partner with the Nokomis team on this exciting transaction. A key part of our strategy is to partner with experienced local developers, such as Nokomis, to execute repeat investments in projects earlier in their lifecycle, where Excelsior can create value by bringing its project finance structuring capabilities to bear. This complements our primary strategy of investing in high-quality operating assets.” “We’re excited to partner with the team at Excelsior to construct this portfolio of community solar projects and bring the benefits of local energy to the Minnesota communities where we live and work,” said Brendan Dillon, partner with Nokomis. “By leveraging Minnesota’s Value of Solar rate structure, no ratepayer subsidies will be used in the funding of these projects, a big step forward for distributed solar. We look forward to continuing to work with Excelsior to deliver benefits to our customers on these and future projects.” News item from Excelsior Energy Capital
US renewable energy investor Excelsior Energy Capital will join energy developer Nokomis Partners in the construction and operation of a number of solar projects, with a total capacity of 16.5-MW MW. The portfolio is made up of ground-mounted arrays across Minnesota that will sell energy under the Minnesota Solar Community Garden programme. Excelsior, which will be the projects' owner in the long-term, is raising the tax equity and debt financing to begin construction imminently.