Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners has announced the successful closing of the Quinbrook Valley of Fire Fund, which has raised $600 million in capital commitments from leading institutional investors in the US and Europe, according to a press release issued on BusinessWire. The fund is a continuation of Quinbrook’s Low Carbon Power Fund’s large-scale solar+storage strategy, which held its final closing in 2019. The lead investor in the fund is Blackstone Strategic Partners.
The Quinbrook Valley of Fire Fund has acquired 51% of the Gemini Solar + Storage project and 100% of the remaining Valley of Fire project development portfolio from the LCPF and certain other equity holders. The transaction has delivered an exceptional return on investment for LCPF investors while creating a new growth platform to provide primary capital commitments to fund the continued development and construction of several large scale solar + storage projects in the VoF portfolio.
Gemini, located just outside of Las Vegas, Nevada, is currently one of the largest solar + storage projects in the US. It is now operational under a 25-year off-take contract. With 690 MWac of solar and a 1,416 MWh battery storage facility, Gemini is expected to generate enough clean energy to power 260,000 homes during super peak periods and displace 1.5 million metric tons of CO2 annually. In 2022, APG acquired a 49% equity ownership in the Gemini project on behalf of its pension fund client ABP.
The Valley of Fire portfolio is made up of seven projects totaling over 2.65GW of solar PV capacity with the potential to add a further 1.5GW of battery storage capacity. The projects span Nevada, Colorado, and Arizona and range between early-to-late-stage development.
Quinbrook portfolio company, Primergy Solar, manages the ongoing development of the portfolio and recently signed a long-term Power Purchase Agreement for the full capacity of the most advanced stage project called the Purple Sage Energy Center, which is a 400 MWac solar and 1.6 GWh battery energy storage project located in Nevada, between Las Vegas and the California state border. The offtake customer is San Diego Community Power.
The successful closing of the Quinbrook Valley of Fire Fund underscores Quinbrook’s commitment to impactful renewable energy project development and new asset creation, and its track record of pursuing strategies that seek to optimize returns for investors wanting differentiated exposure to the energy transition.