Apollo Makes $220 Million Bet on Community Solar for Demand Boom

A solar power plant near McCamey, Texas. Photo by Jordan Vonderhaar /Bloomberg

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(Bloomberg) — Apollo Global Management Inc. is spending as much as $220 million to form a joint venture with a Vermont-based community solar company to help serve the growing US demand for electricity. 

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The joint venture will own most of the portfolio for Bullrock Energy Ventures and put $100 million of Apollo’s investment toward building Bullrock’s planned projects. The funds will allow the joint venture to keep ownership of solar developments, instead of selling some to raise money for the next project.

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Community solar developments sell electricity onto the grid with the development’s subscribers — local homes and businesses — earning credits on their power bills. With data centers and new factories sparking massive growth in power demand, those carbon-free electronsare increasingly valuable. Bullrock’s projects average about 5 megawatts each with the majority in New York State. 

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Even as demand for electricity is growing, the solar industry is facing challenges. Developers are grappling with US tariffs, high interest rates and slow permitting timelines. There’s also the risk of less government support under US President Donald Trump, who has focused on gas, coal and oil in his quest for US “energy dominance.”

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“What I think is so special about community solar is the ability to deploy at scale on a repeatable basis,” said Corinne Still, an Apollo partner. She added that community solar remains attractive under the Trump administration thanks to rising power demand and the fact that the energy source is cheap and fast to build. “The macro trends that have supported the sector will still stand.”

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Bullrock’s focus on building domestic energy production also aligns with the Trump administration focus on a reliable and secure electric grid and increased energy output, founder and chairman Gregg Beldock said in an interview.

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“While there’s this focus on domestic energy production, we’re achieving that while others are searching for it,” he said. “The Apollo investment allows us to grow more quickly.”

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Apollo has made previous investments in solar firms, including an up to $400 million joint venture with commercial solar provider Summit Ridge Energy and the purchase of a stake in a Texas solar and storage portfolio from TotalEnergies. Apollo has put about $58 billion into climate and energy transition-related investments over the past five years, according to the company. 

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“Private equity is lining up to own some of these pools of community solar projects,” Pol Lezcano, a BloombergNEF solar analyst, said in an email. He noted that these portfolios are attractive because revenue is high, at least three times higher than larger utility-scale solar farms, and because many portfolios are spread out geographically between multiple markets.

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—With assistance from Laura Benitez.

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