Brookfield snaps up US wind power giant Duke Renewables in $2.8bn deal

Brookfield Renewable has snapped up the unregulated commercial renewables business of Duke Energy, one of the US’ largest wind operators.

Brookfield agreed to buy Duke Energy Renewables at an enterprise value of $2.8bn, giving it another 5.9GW of operating and under-construction wind, solar and storage, and a 6.1GW development pipeline.

Brookfield said the deal will add to its firepower as one of the world’s largest renewable energy operators.

It added that it would be getting “one of the largest operating wind portfolios in the US… and a development pipeline that is well positioned to benefit from a highly supportive regulatory backdrop and growing demand for renewable energy from commercial and industrial buyers”.

Brookfield sees big opportunities for repowering the Duke Energy wind assets, it added.

"With this acquisition, we are adding a scale operating renewable platform with a full suite of in-house capabilities and a proven management team experienced in operations and development," said Connor Teskey, CEO of Brookfield Renewable.

“We are also adding to our pipeline of renewable development projects, solidifying our position as one of the largest renewable energy businesses in the US with almost 90GW of operating and development assets.”

Con Edison sold its clean energy business to Germany’s RWE, including 3GW of operating assets, while AEP announced on earlier this year an agreement to sell 1.37GW of solar and wind projects for $1.5bn to a partnership that includes Invenergy.

Duke CEO Lynn Good said: "This sale is an important step in our transition into a purely regulated company with significant grid and clean energy investment plans that will deliver benefits to our customers and stakeholders."

The Brookfield deal for Duke Energy Renewables is expected to close by the end of the year.

Duke Energy is separately selling its distributed energy business and said a deal for that unit is expected to conclude this year.