A stake of a 900 MW solar portfolio owned by Engie was purchased by Ares Management, an alternative asset management firm. Engie North America will retain a controlling interest in the portfolio, which includes three solar projects in the MISO and ERCOT regions. MISO is a grid operator serving central U.S. states and the Canadian province of Manitoba. ERCOT is the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.
Engie said it could not comment on the deal’s specific terms, including how much of the 900 MW portfolio Ares purchased or the sale’s value, but reported that Ares acquired a non-controlling, minority stake in the portfolio.
Engie told pv magazine USA the 900 MW portfolio includes the Ray Ranch solar and the Chillingham solar-plus-storage projects located in the ERCOT territory, and the Twin Lakes solar projected located in the MISO region.
The three solar projects have a combined capacity of 755 MW and are operational. Engie said the Chillingham BESS project is currently in the commissioning phase.
- Chillingham Solar (350 MW)
- Ray Ranch Solar (255 MW)
- Twin Lakes Solar (150 MW)
- Chillingham BESS (150 MW)
Chillingham Solar
With a 350 MW capacity, Chillingham is Engie’s largest solar project in the U.S.
The Chillingham solar project is located in Bell County, Texas. In October, Google signed on for a 90 MW portion of the project’s 350 MW output ahead of its operation through a power purchase agreement (PPA). The PPA helped Engine round out 2024 with nearly 1 GW of signed PPAs for its U.S operations. Another 75 MW of the project’s output is signed to WestRock, a sustainable paper and packaging producer, through a virtual power purchase agreement.
The project will generate more than $72 million in tax revenues to support the local community throughout the project’s lifetime.
Ray Ranch Solar
Ray Ranch is a 255 MW project near Goliad, Texas.
Twin Lakes
Located on 850 acres in White County, Indiana, Twin Lakes is the only project outside the ERCOT territory. Energy generated from the 150 MW project will go to the MISO grid. Engie said the project is designed to accommodate using the land for other purposes such as farming or pollinator habitat, thereby increasing the overall productivity of the project footprint.
Twin Lakes is estimated to generate $27 million in total revenue for White County over its 35-year lifespan, composed of $25 million in property taxes.
The sale expands a partnership the companies entered in September when Engie sold a stake of its 2.7 GW portfolio to Ares Management. At the time, the portfolio included 15 projects in operation, consisting of 53% solar, 25% wind and 22% co-located battery storage capacity. The new sale brings the partnership’s portfolio to 3.6 GW.
Houston-based Engie North America is a regional hub of Engie, a global corporation focused on low-carbon energy and services. Engie says it has more than 11 GW of renewable production in operation or construction across the U.S. and Canada, and 51 GW of operating renewable and storage project around the world. In 2022, the company acquired a 6 GW portfolio of late-stage projects across ERCOT, PJM, MISO and WECC regions.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.