Allianz Capital Partners has invested in the Kelly Wind project, a U.S. wind project developed and owned by EDF Renewable Energy. This investment adds to Allianz’s growing U.S. wind farm tax equity portfolio in partnership with an experienced owner-operator.
The Kelly Creek wind project, located in Ford County and Kankakee County, Ill., is a 184-megawatt wind farm that employs 92 Vestas 2.0MW V100 turbines capable of generating enough electricity to power 78,000 average Illinois homes.
“The U.S. offers a very attractive framework for wind investments. With these kinds of investments, we can offer stable and uncorrelated returns to Allianz even in the current low-interest environment,” says David Jones, head of renewables at Allianz Capital Partners.
This is the second project Allianz has invested in alongside EDF Renewable Energy. The first project was an investment with Bank of America for two wind parks in New Mexico in February 2016. By investing in the two New Mexico wind projects, Allianz had internationalized its renewables initiative beyond its European base, and took its total investment to more than $3 billion of equity investments in wind and solar assets.
Allianz is further expanding its renewables portfolio and has now invested in a total of 73 wind farms and seven solar parks located in Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the United States. The wind and solar parks of Allianz generate enough renewable energy to supply more than 1 million households.