Sun Financial & Kenyon Energy Announce Partnership on Portfolio of Solar Assets
Sun Financial, LLC and Kenyon Energy, LLC have announced the sale of an approximately 33 megawatt distributed generation (DG) solar portfolio to closed-end fund, Tortoise Energy Infrastructure Fund (TYG). Financial terms were not disclosed however as part of the transaction, Sun Financial retained rights to buy back into the portfolio of solar projects that will provide electricity to various university and municipality customers in the State of New York. Bay4 Energy Services, LLC has been selected to provide ongoing asset management and O&M services.
“We view renewable energy as an increasingly critical component of the energy value chain and we have an experienced team focused solely on private renewable energy and infrastructure investments,” said Matthew Sallee, portfolio manager and president of TYG. “We are enthused about this investment in long-lived, stable assets with long-term contracts and high-quality counterparties to generate predictable cash flows and risk/return potential similar to our current MLP investments. Additionally, we believe that our proactive approach to managing taxes through solar investment tax credits will be accretive to our stockholders.”
Clay Biddinger, Chairman & CEO of Sun Financial, added “we are pleased to partner with TYG on this portfolio of solar projects and look forward to providing renewable energy to our university and municipality customers across New York. The structure of this transaction is consistent with Sun Financial’s desire to be a long-term owner of renewable energy assets. As one of the largest owner-operators of DG solar projects in New York, this deal allows Sun Financial to re-balance its portfolio so we can continue to fund and acquire PPA projects from our nationwide network of developer partners.”
“We are pleased to partner with Sun Financial and its affiliate Kenyon Energy to develop, construct and operate solar PV projects across the United States,” said Jerry Polacek of Tortoise’s clean energy and infrastructure team. “As a long-term owner of renewable energy assets, we believe there is significant opportunity to capitalize on the unfolding growth trend in the solar energy sector.”
Ray Gonzalez, President of Kenyon Energy, added “As a leading developer, owner and operator of distributed solar projects, we look forward to our continuing relationship with Tortoise to develop and finance numerous projects.”
Image Source: Kenyon Energy