PSP, Riverstone to fund Pattern Energy growth with $1.2bn

Pattern Energy has agreed to a series of deals that will see it receive institutional capital totalling $1.2 billion that the San Francisco-based power producer will use to develop its growing clean energy pipeline.

Mike Garland, chief executive of Pattern, which has built a 2.7GW portfolio of wind projects in North and South America, said the deals “signal major expansion” that will “define our growth” years down the road. Pattern’s new funding will fuel its development pipeline, which has grown to 10GW of projects, and moves the company closer to meeting its 5GW target by 2020, Garland said.

In one deal, Pattern agreed to $724 million of long-term funding from institutional investors managed through a vehicle owned by Riverstone, an energy-focused private equity firm. The capital will support projects Pattern Development 2, the company’s yieldco, has in its pipeline. Garland said its tie-up with Riverstone will likely last a “very long” time.

In addition to the Riverstone partnership, Pattern invested $60 million in its yieldco, taking a 20 percent stake.

“Pattern Energy’s investment in the development business allows us to improve our margins and secure access to a tremendous pipeline of new projects,” Garland said.

Ottawa-based Public Sector Pension Investment Board has formed its own partnership with Pattern, agreeing to co-invest $500 million in projects that Pattern acquires and to purchase 8.7 million of its other yieldco, Pattern Development 1. The arrangement’s inaugural move will see PSP co-invest in two Canadian wind facilities generating a combined 322MW and take a 49 percent stake in a 182MW project alongside Pattern.

“This relationship grants us access to a portfolio of projects and a source of new assets in renewables, and we believe it will provide good and stable returns for our contributors and beneficiaries,” PSP Investments managing director Patrick Samson explained.