SALT LAKE CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Silverado Power (“Silverado”), a portfolio company of Fir Tree Partners (“Fir Tree”), is pleased to announce it has completed a merger with solar independent power producer Sustainable Power Group (“sPower”). The newly created entity, to be called sPower, possesses the projects, capabilities and capital to compete at the highest levels of the solar energy market.
The combined company, which controls one of the largest portfolios of development projects in the U.S., will be one of the leading end-to-end players in the market, focused on the following:
(1) Completing development of its approximately 400MW portfolio of solar
PV projects
(2) Partnering with developers to finance late-stage
renewable energy development projects
(3) Purchasing renewable
energy operating projects, and
(4) Providing world class operations
of renewable power producing projects
sPower is majority owned by Fir Tree Partners, an investment firm with 20 years of history and significant experience in real estate, energy and infrastructure investments. Fir Tree acquired San Francisco-based Silverado Power late last year and has expanded its mandate from early-stage development to completing projects on its own balance sheet.
sPower brings a highly complementary skill set to Silverado’s early-stage development expertise. sPower excels at building, financing and operating solar PV assets with a long-term focus. Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, sPower currently owns and operates over 100 solar PV facilities nationwide and maintains arrangements with a number of industry leading tax equity providers.
Ryan Creamer, CEO of sPower said, “sPower has proven that we can build, operate and finance solar projects on a large scale. With the Silverado team, we hope to build at least 100 MW of solar projects in 2014 and over 150 MW in 2015. In addition to our Silverado pipeline, we will continue to acquire quality solar projects, in any stage, from other developers.”
Scott Troeller, a senior executive at Fir Tree, said of the newly-formed entity, “We believe the combination of Silverado’s deep development pipeline with that of sPower’s ability to manage construction, finance and operations is a natural combination for success in the renewables marketplace.”
The new company will maintain offices in Salt Lake City, Utah and San Francisco, California and will use sPower’s name, logo and website (www.sPower.com).
Reznick Capital Markets acted as advisor to Fir Tree on both the Silverado and sPower transactions. Media Venture Partners acted as advisor to Silverado in its transaction with Fir Tree.
About Fir Tree Partners
Fir Tree, founded in 1994, is a private investment firm with approximately $12 billion of capital under management. The firm invests worldwide in public and private companies, real estate, and debt. Fir Tree manages assets on behalf of leading endowments, foundations, pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds. The firm maintains offices in New York, Miami and London.
About sPower
sPower is a leading Independent Power Producer (IPP) with energy resources across North America. sPower's team brings the skills and resources to plan, fund, build, manage and own complex energy installations to meet the world's demands. With a management team that has a proven ability to think globally and manage complex organizations - both public and private - sPower is uniquely qualified to drive a new future of energy independence.
About Silverado Power
Silverado Power is a utility-scale solar development and generation company providing complete solar solutions for landowners, utilities and communities. Silverado Power delivers a fresh solution to the burgeoning solar market through its unique combination of experience, scale, proprietary industry knowledge and regional know how. The team also has a long track record of partnering with utilities, local governments, equipment manufacturers, and EPC providers.
