Panda Power Funds has raised $310 million for its second energy-sector fund, Panda Power Fund II, according to a filing with the SEC. The fund launched in June with an $800 million target. A final close date was not disclosed.
The firm has started to invest its capital. Its first acquisition is Moxie Energy’s planned 829-megawatt natural gas–fueled, combined-cycle “Liberty” generating station, located in Bradford County, Pa. The fund is supplying equity for the Liberty project along with a large institutional co-investor.
When completed, the Liberty project will be the first new power plant in Pennsylvania specifically developed to take advantage of its proximity to the Marcellus Shale gas formation. Panda expects commercial operations to begin by early 2016.
The fund follows the firm’s Panda Power Generation Infrastructure Fund, which closed in 2011 with $420 million. It develops or acquires U.S. natural gas–fueled power plants and utility-scale solar projects in select states.
Recently, the firm announced that it will fire up two Texas-based natural gas–powered plants toward the end of 2014, one in Temple and another in Sherman, adding a total of 1,500 megawatts to the state’s electric grid.