Terra Firma’s EverPower buys Illinois wind farm

EverPower Wind Holdings, a developer, owner and operator of utility-grade wind projects, will be acquiring the 240-megawatt (MW) Big Sky Wind Farm in Illinois from Suzlon Energy, a wind turbine manufacturer based in India.

EverPower declined to disclose financial details of the transaction.

The acquisition will bring EverPower’s total wind-generating capacity in the US to 752MW, making it the 18th-largest wind generator in the country, the company said in a statement.

The Big Sky project, completed in early 2011, has the capacity to power 50,000 homes a year, while offsetting over 225,000 tons of CO2 emissions.

“The acquisition of Big Sky is a transformative deal for EverPower, growing its total generating capacity by nearly 50 percent,” said Stefan Thiele, managing director of Terra Firma, the European private equity firm that has owned EverPower since 2009.

“This is a high-quality site which further strengthens EverPower’s position as a major wind energy producer in the US,” he said, noting too that it is also Terra Firma’s 20th transaction in the renewable energy infrastructure sector.

To date, EverPower has seven operational wind facilities in four states. Over 70 percent of its capacity is located in PJM, the regional transmission organisation that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia.

Founded in 2002, EverPower is headquartered in Pittsburgh with offices in New York and Bellefontaine, Ohio.

Terra Firma Capital Partners is a UK-based private equity firm founded by Guy Hands. The firm specialises in the acquisition and transformation of asset-backed businesses, focusing on investments in private equity, real estate and infrastructure.

Since its founding in 1994, Terra Firma has invested over €16 billion of equity and completed transactions with an aggregate enterprise value of €45 billion.