DSD Renewables (DSD) has secured a $200 million preferred equity investment from a fund managed by the Infrastructure and Power strategy of Ares Management Corporation (Ares) to increase its continued strategic growth.
The capital will be used to support DSD’s expanding pipeline of future projects in the commercial and industrial (C&I) market, grow its Developer Network, support corporate needs, and provide readily accessible capital for asset acquisitions.
“Bringing on another top-tier investor to support business growth validates DSD’s approach and the power of our platform,” says Greg Fabso, Chief Financial Officer at DSD.
“This investment from Ares, along with continued support from BlackRock Real Assets, will enable us to scale further as we strategically build out more renewable energy projects across the country, take on new partners, and grow our asset base,” he added.
In May 2021, DSD raised $85 million in tax equity financing from Bank of America to support its expanding pipeline of distributed generation solar projects in the commercial and industrial market through 2021, with a sizeable portion going toward New York State Energy Development and Research Authority Value of Distributed Energy Resources assets.
Last year in January, DSD closed a $300 million debt facility financed by Credit Suisse. With financing secured, DSD has the flexibility to support projects that will be developed in 2021 and 2022 and to support the company’s anticipated growth.
According to Mercom’s recently published Q4 2021 solar funding and M&A report, global venture capital and private equity funding in the solar sector in 2021 came to $4.5 billion, a 281% increase compared to the $1.2 billion in 2020. This is the highest amount of VC funding for the solar sector since 2010.
