United States-headquartered private equity giant KKR has announced it will invest $500 million (USD 328.55 million) to support CleanPeak Energy in growing and developing a pipeline of behind- and front-of-meter solar, battery energy storage systems, and microgrids for Australia’s commercial and industrial (C&I) sector.
Founded in 2017, CleanPeak has established itself as a key player in providing integrated solar-and-storage systems tailored for large corporations across Australia.
Neil Arora, Partner and Head of KKR’s Climate Transition strategy for Asia, said the strategic partnership with CleanPeak will support rapid growth of the company’s capacity, helping to meet demand among C&I customers for on-site solar and storage systems to help meet climate targets and reduce costs.
“Australia’s C&I energy market is at an inflection point as corporates seek bankable pathways to better energy efficiency, reliability and affordability,” he said.
“By combining CleanPeak’s proven operating platform with KKR’s global network, operational expertise, and deep experience across our energy and infrastructure teams, we are well positioned to unlock significant opportunities for corporate customers looking to decarbonise and reduce their energy bills.”
Sydney-based CleanPeak operates more than 50 distributed generation sites across Australia, including more than 40 MW of rooftop solar, 100 MW of utility-scale solar farms, and 35 MWh of battery energy storage projects, as well as microgrids providing energy and heating and cooling services for more than one million square metres of floor space. The generation and storage portfolio is supported by a series of long-term energy sale contracts with C&I and residential customers.
In addition to its operational portfolio, CeanPeak has a further 100 MW of solar and 300 MWh of battery projects in the pipeline.
CleanPeak co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Philip Graham said the company’s strong operational foundation provides an excellent springboard for further growth under KKR’s financial backing.
“KKR is a perfect strategic partner for us as we seek to rapidly expand renewable energy solutions for our customers,” he said. “They bring deep energy transition expertise, financial strength and a partnership mindset that will allow CleanPeak to continue to offer net-zero solutions at the same time as accelerating our growth plans through bolt‑on acquisitions.”
The new financing deal comes less than one month after CleanPeak closed a $465 million debt refinancing deal allowing it to move forward on several projects expected to achieve financial close in fiscal 2026.
The funding is expected to be used by CleanPeak Energy Renewable Investment Trust (CEPRI), a joint venture between CleanPeak and Igneo Infrastructure Partners, to support the continued development of the CPERI portfolio, including the construction of battery energy storage systems to be co-located with existing solar assets.
CPERI was established in 2018 to develop, own and operate multi-utility renewable energy projects.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.