Element Power secures $35M in debt capital
By Erik Siemers, Business Journal staff writer
Business Journal staff writer
Renewable energy developer Element Power this week disclosed nearly $35 million in new debt financing.
The company is a developer of large-scale wind and solar projects with its North American headquarters in Portland.
Chief Operating Officer Raimund Grube said the funds aren’t part of a solicited round of fund-raising.
“This is just part of our capital structure, a treasury function,” he said. “We didn’t go out for a capital raise.”
Nonetheless, the funds, he said, can be considered growth capital, and Element is certainly trying to grow.
Element, with several divisions spread across Europe, South America and North America, has amassed a pipeline of projects worldwide that, once built, will account for nearly 7,800 megawatts of wind energy and more than 1,700 megawatts of solar power. That’s enough electricity to power some 2.6 million homes.
Nearly all of that — 83 percent of the wind projects and 70 percent of solar — are U.S.-based projects being led by the company’s Portland-based North American headquarters, established in March 2009.
“We’ve been aggressively building up a portfolio of projects,” said Chris Taylor, the company’s chief development officer for North America, said in a recent interview.
Element is backed by Hudson Clean Energy Partners, a Teaneck, N.J.-based private equity fund created in 2007 by the team that ran Goldman Sachs’ clean energy investment
In late 2009, Hudson closed its initial fund, raising more than $1 billion. Its portfolio today includes seven renewable energy investments, including San Jose-based SoloPower, the thin-film solar energy firm building a manufacturing plant in Wilsonville.
Taylor said Element remains Hudson’s largest investment. The company has received other outside investment, but has declined to disclose the source.
Grube said the new debt capital is separate from the Hudson-funded equity capital. He declined to disclose the investor.
“It’s to fund development, fund acquisitions, for the construction of projects,” Grube said.
esiemers@bizjournals.com | 503.219.3438
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