CleanCapital, a clean energy company, has acquired an operating solar portfolio totaling 13 MW, comprising two brownfield assets, Steel Sun II and Homeridae.
The projects, developed by BQ Energy Development (BQ) and operational since 2019, supply clean energy to a local university, healthcare provider, and a municipality in upstate New York. They are financed by M&T Bank’s Commercial Equipment Finance Group.
Steel Sun II is located on the former Bethlehem Steel site on Buffalo’s waterfront and is part of a larger revitalization that includes an array of solar and wind projects. The energy generated by this project is contracted to Kaleida Health and Canisius University, the latter of which is meeting its sustainability goals with this project.
The Homeridae project is one of two solar arrays in Olean sited on a former oil refinery and tank farm. The City of Olean is the energy offtake for these projects, demonstrating cost savings to taxpayers in the five years of operations.
Both sites benefited from the Department of Environmental Conservation Region 9 brownfield cleanup program.
“The net metering credits generated by the Homeridae solar project have been a significant benefit to our city budget, allowing us to reallocate savings toward other essential services for our community,” stated William Aiello, Mayor of Olean. “We are excited to see the ongoing positive impact of this oil refinery turned solar project that provides reliable and clean energy to the City of Olean."
A former BQ team with more than 20 years of project development experience is fully integrated with CleanCapital. CleanCapital’s in-house development team, led by former BQ CEO Paul Curran, includes about a quarter of the company headcount and oversees a project pipeline of nearly 2 GW of solar and more than 8 GWh of energy storage.
“Our focus now is to execute on the more than 100 projects in our pipeline and deliver more clean megawatts to our customers as expeditiously as we can,” said Paul Curran, Chief Development Officer at CleanCapital and former BQ CEO.
The acquisition brings CleanCapital’s portfolio of operating and under-construction assets to 242 projects, totaling 341 MW across 23 states and U.S. territories. The projects, comprising community solar, commercial & industrial (C&I) solar, and utility-scale solar, serve more than 116 corporations, municipalities, schools, hospitals, and other customers across the U.S.
