Ardian Infrastructure, a $67 billion private investment house, has started a partnership with Transatlantic Power Holdings (TPH) to build a renewable platform, Skyline Renewables, which will be based in the United States. Skyline Renewables’ first acquisition is Whirlwind, a wind project in Texas from Renewable Energy Systems Americas Development, Inc.
Skyline Renewables completed its first acquisition, Whirlwind Energy, a windfarm comprised of 26 turbines with a total capacity of 60 megawatts, located in Floyd County in the Northwest of Texas. The acquisition included the buyout of tax equity interests from J.P. Morgan and cash equity interests from RES Americas.
Skyline Renewables will focus on acquiring operating and development projects in the onshore wind sector. Skyline Renewables plans to build one of the leading North American clean independent power platforms with a total installed capacity of 3 gigawatts.
Martin Mugica and Lorenzo Roccia founded TPH in 2016 with a group of private investors. Mugica and his management team built Iberdrola into the second-largest renewable player in North America via systematic acquisitions and organic growth. Roccia will serve as Skyline’s chairman and Mugica will serve as Skyline’s CEO. The company’s senior management team includes additional veterans from the Iberdrola Renewables team, Vikram Bakshi, Victor Austin and Manuel Ramos.
“While our vision for Skyline Renewables is broad, Whirlwind is the ideal first investment, one in which we can actively manage the asset and optimize returns,” said Stefano Mion, managing director and co-head of Ardian Infrastructure U.S.
“Our partnership with Ardian, a company known for its sophisticated understanding of the infrastructure market, has provided both the resources and support to deliver on our strategy for building a leading North American power producer. There are great opportunities ahead and we are looking forward to taking advantage of them with Ardian’s full support,” added Mugica.