AGP Sustainable Real Assets and Hartree Partners have formed a joint venture called Ampyr Energy USA that aims to build 5GW of merchant utility-scale PV “across multiple markets” in the country, as part of a wider ambition as a global renewables developer.
“With the federal and state goals for accelerating the energy transition, the US will be one of the fastest growing solar markets in the world and a core strategic priority in realising Ampyr’s ambition of becoming one of the largest independent renewables developers and operators globally,” said board chair Saurabh Beniwal.
The US Department of Energy (DoE) last September in its sweeping Solar Futures Study estimated that PV could provide 37-42% of national electricity demand by 2035 versus 3% in 2020. US electric power consumption was 3,800TWh in 2020, according to the latest calendar year data.
Based in Singapore, AGP, an asset development and investment fund, claims to have brought more than 3GW of wind and solar projects into commercial operation in the Asia-Pacific region with more than half in India.
Hartree, a New York-based energy and commodities trading firm, is owned by executives and funds managed by OakTree Capital Management. In 2019, Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management bought 62% control of OakTree, creating one of the world’s largest alternative money managers.
The launch of Ampyr Energy USA comes 13 months after AGP and Hartree formed Ampyr Solar Europe (ASE) with a similar 5GW large-scale PV goal in Germany, the Netherlands, and UK. ASE recently closed a €400m ($440m) facility to support this plan.
ASE expects to brings initial projects into commercial operation by the end of 2022 and deploy the full 5GW pipeline by 2025.
