Climate solutions investor Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure Capital (Hannon Armstrong) has established a $100 million CarbonCount Green Commercial Paper Note Program, marking the first fully Green Commercial Paper program in the United States.
The company plans to use the net proceeds from the Green Commercial Paper Notes (CP Notes) to acquire or refinance eligible behind-the-meter, grid-connected, and sustainable infrastructure green projects. The CP Notes will have equal payment rights to Hannon Armstrong’s existing unsecured and unsubordinated debt.
Amounts available under the program can be borrowed, repaid, and re-borrowed as needed, with the maximum face or principal amount of CP Notes outstanding at any given time not exceeding $100 million.
“This CarbonCount Green Commercial Paper Program is another cost-effective and innovative component of our diverse funding platform,” said Jeffrey A Lipson, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Hannon Armstrong.
CarbonCount is a scoring tool for evaluating investments in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and climate resilience projects in the U.S. to determine how each dollar of invested capital reduces annual carbon dioxide equivalent emissions.
Hannon Armstrong exclusively invests in assets that are neutral to negative on cumulative carbon emissions or have some other tangible environmental impact, such as reducing water use, as per their investment thesis and sustainability investment policy. With more than $8 billion in managed assets, Hannon Armstrong’s core purpose is to make climate-positive investments with superior risk-adjusted returns.
Last year, Hannon Armstrong announced a preferred equity investment in the onshore wind and utility-scale solar portfolio of Clearway Energy Group, which has a pipeline of 9 GW of renewable energy through 2022.
Hannon Armstrong and ENGIE North America entered a partnership to invest in a distributed generation portfolio of solar and solar-plus-storage assets located across the U.S. The portfolio comprises a diversified set of community solar and commercial and industrial ground-mounted, carport, rooftop solar, and solar-plus-storage projects (around 70 MW in total).
Fully integrated solar and storage platform Sunpower secured financing commitments from Hannon Armstrong for its residential solar lease program and its new solar plus storage program in 2020.
