New York, NY, May 21, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Greenbacker Renewable Energy Company LLC (“Greenbacker” or the “Company”) a leading investment vehicle holding sustainable infrastructure investments for registered investment adviser firms, wirehouses, independent broker-dealers, family offices, and their clients—recently announced financial results for the full year ended December 31, 2020.
Among many annual highlights, total gross revenue from the sale of energy and environmental attributes rose to $76.4 million, marking a climb of nearly 39% from 2019. The total energy produced by Greenbacker’s portfolio of renewable energy infrastructure projects also increased during the year, rising by 61%, while the total megawatts (MW) of power generation capacity owned by the company grew to 917, a 65% increase over 2019.
This strong uptick in production was spurred by another record-setting year of investment activity for Greenbacker. The Company deployed $395.0 million of capital into 75 new projects, raising the total number of renewable energy projects in its portfolio to 235. During 2020, the fair value of Greenbacker’s investments in both controlled and non-controlled projects rose 37%, to $648.8 million.
Charles Wheeler, CEO of Greenbacker, noted that, “The demand for renewable power continues to grow exponentially, with increasing development opportunities leading to a robust investment pipeline extending well into the future. Despite the pandemic and the economic dislocation associated with it, our core business of purchasing and operating renewable energy projects continued to flourish in 2020. We continued to build our capabilities in anticipation of strong future growth in our portfolio and also extended our invested asset classes into a new sector, battery storage, which we expect will become an important asset class in its own right over the next few years. As we hopefully put the pandemic behind us, we believe the case for our investment thesis—which seeks to provide durable yield from assets that are non-correlated to other segments of the market—remains stronger than ever today.”
Performance Highlights
Power production and gross revenue up significantly
Within Greenbacker’s renewable energy portfolio, total energy production rose to 990,891 megawatt-hours (MWh) in 2020, an increase of 61% over the prior year. Total gross revenue from the energy and environmental attributes sold via long-term contracts to municipalities, utilities, and businesses rose by nearly 39% over 2019.
Fleet value on the rise
Greenbacker’s total annual gross investment value1 reached $1.1 billion, a year-over-year increase of 61%.
Distributions to shareholders increase
Greenbacker’s shareholder distributions reached $31.0 million in 2020, showing growth of 20% from 2019.
Expansion of preconstruction portfolio
After announcing the objective last year, Greenbacker significantly grew its investments in pre-operational assets in 2020. Assets under construction increased from $128.6 million of the company’s portfolio as of December 31, 2019, to $144.4 million as of December 31, 2020.
Preconstruction assets provide a number of benefits to the portfolio. Oversight during the construction phase allows Greenbacker to exercise quality control that will help to ensure optimal asset performance in the long run. To-be-constructed projects also typically bring a longer contract length across the portfolio.
Investment thesis evolves to include battery storage
Greenbacker made its first foray into the battery storage market in 2020, acquiring a portfolio of behind-the-meter battery storage facilities in June. The company also purchased the rights to a combination solar-plus-storage project (22 MW, Colorado) in September 2020, which went into operation in April of 2021. The project represents Greenbacker’s first operational asset that pairs solar power generation with energy storage capabilities. An onsite Tesla battery pack capable of storing up to 2 MWh of energy helps ensure less expensive, more reliable power during times of peak consumer demand, emergency, or lower solar resource (i.e., less sunshine).
Geographic footprint broadens
Greenbacker expanded its geographic presence into the following states: Maine, South Dakota and Utah. This delivers on the company’s ongoing strategy of broad diversification across many factors, including different state regulatory regimes, diverse weather systems, multiple high-quality offtakers (to purchase the power produced by its assets), and different technologies to generate electricity, including wind and solar.
First quarter update: Greenbacker sees a surge in new capital
Greenbacker Renewable Energy Company LLC raised $455 million in new capital investment in the first quarter of 2021, almost doubling in size and providing ample fuel for additional growth. The Company also added over four thousand new investors to its shareholder base.
This increase in capital is a testament to the Company’s continued focus on delivering results to shareholders by executing on a core strategy of purchasing and operating world-class sustainable infrastructure. Moreover, new tailwinds have boosted Greenbacker’s business and capital raising; strong fundamentals in the renewable energy sector, along with the election of an Administration which has professed strong support for renewable energy expansion, have been quite supportive.
Additionally, Greenbacker continues to draw the attention of an increasing amount of impact investors, people seeking to invest their money in opportunities that align with their values. As this investor base has grown—and the demand for lucrative environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment opportunities has continued to increase—Greenbacker has become an increasingly attractive destination for a marketplace that prioritizes reliable sources of yield and responsible investing.
Fortunately, the Company has extremely clear visibility regarding how to deploy its investors’ capital into new high-quality solar and wind assets, which should help grow its enterprise value considerably. As of March 31, 2021, the company’s pipeline of potential transactions reached a record $383.9 million.
Although first-quarter net assets under value declined slightly as the Company worked to deploy this new capital into additional high-quality assets, Greenbacker’s team is working diligently and expects to successfully put that capital to work over the coming months. In the meantime, as Greenbacker continues to achieve greater scale, the Company’s investors are already beginning to see the benefits of a larger firm—particularly in the form of lower management fees, as the Company reached the first of two fee breakpoints that were implemented last year pursuant to its advisory agreement with Greenbacker Capital Management LLC.
David Sher, Director of Greenbacker concluded, “As we continue to emerge from the pandemic, our focus and dedication remains steadfast. We will continue to invest in the path of sustainable growth, supporting the shift away from fossil fuels into renewable energy sources.”
About Greenbacker Renewable Energy Company
Greenbacker Renewable Energy Company LLC is a publicly reporting, non-traded limited liability company that acquires and manages income-generating renewable energy and energy efficiency projects, and other energy-related businesses. The projects in which we invest, such as solar and wind facilities, sell power under long-term contracts to high credit worthy counterparties such as utilities, municipalities, and corporations. For more information, please visit www.greenbackercapital.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results to differ materially from those anticipated at the time the forward-looking statements are made. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in the “Risk Factors” section of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 and in subsequently filed periodic reports that we file with the SEC. Although the Company believes the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that the expectations will be attained or that any deviation will not be material. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement contained herein to conform to actual results or changes in the Company’s expectations.
Disclosure
This information has been prepared solely for informational purposes and is not an offer to buy or sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any security, or to participate in any trading or investment strategy. The information presented herein may involve Greenbacker’s views, estimates, assumptions, facts, and information from other sources that are believed to be accurate and reliable and are, as of the date this information is presented, subject to change without notice.
Media Contacts:
| Greenbacker: Joseph Kuo / Chris Clemens Haven Tower Group (424) 317-4851 or (424) 317-4854 mediarelations@greenbackercapital.com |
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1 Gross investment value (GIV) reflects the fair market value of our assets and cash, as well as project-level debt related to our projects. GIV amounts are unaudited and subject to change.