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Melbourne-based energy company CleanPeak Energy has acquired 100 per cent of Sustainable Energy Infrastructure (SEI), one of Australia's largest owners and developers of sub-5MW solar and battery assets, as it moves to rapidly scale its national footprint on the back of a $500 million strategic partnership announced last year with global investment firm KKR.
The SEI deal adds 71 MWac of solar capacity across 16 sites and 42 MW of battery energy storage across 11 sites in NSW, Victoria and South Australia to CleanPeak's existing portfolio, which spans more than 50 distributed generation sites, 140 MW of solar assets and 35 MWh of battery energy storage system projects.
The acquisition follows KKR's $500 million commitment to CleanPeak through its Global Climate Transition strategy, marking the New York-headquartered firm's first Asia-Pacific investment under that strategy and its sixth transaction globally.
CleanPeak was co-founded in 2017 by Philip Graham and Jon Hare to develop, own and operate distributed solar and battery assets for commercial and industrial customers.
The company is currently delivering more than $200 million of construction projects and has a pipeline of 100 MW of solar and 300 MWh of battery storage.
The company says SEI’s geographically diverse asset base across the national electricity market will support the accelerated growth of CleanPeak's retail business by providing a scalable and cost-effective risk-management solution.
“SEI brings together a high quality portfolio of distributed solar and battery assets that align perfectly with CleanPeak’s vision to develop a smarter, cleaner and more resilient renewable energy portfolio," says Graham, the CleanPeak CEO.
"By integrating SEI into our platform, we are not only expanding our national footprint but also strengthening our ability to provide low-cost and reliable renewable energy to customers.
"This acquisition positions us to accelerate the growth of our retail business while continuing to lead in the development of distributed energy solutions.
"We’re excited to build on SEI’s strong foundations and unlock the next phase of growth together.”
The Adelaide-headquartered SEI was established in 2018 by Whitehelm Capital, which in 2022 was acquired by German investment giant PATRIZIA, to purchased a portfolio of high-quality, established energy assets.
The portfolio was originally assembled from assets purchased from AGL and has since grown to become one of Australia's largest collections of sub-5MW renewable energy infrastructure.
CleanPeak Energy says the acquisition enables it to accelerate growth of its in-front-of-the-meter solar portfolio in line with its growth strategy over the next three to five years.
The combined platform positions CleanPeak as one of Australia's largest distributed energy operators, with the company now targeting further growth across solar, battery storage and retail energy services as it deploys KKR's capital into its project pipeline.
Financial details of the SEI acquisition have not been disclosed.
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