Infrastructure | Business Focus

Pursuing Sustainable Energy Goals By Harnessing Renewable Resources

In pursuit of growing our energy related business beyond the conventional areas, we have expanded our renewable power business in recent years by seeking out new opportunities in wind, solar and geothermal.  These ventures allow us to leverage our experience and global expertise as a long-term strategic investor, and work with strong partners on high-quality renewable energy projects at various stages of production.  The progress of our renewable power initiatives also reflect our sustainability standards by addressing energy-related environmental issues that are global in scale and affect future generations.

Active Investors

SC in the Americas has been an active player in various renewable energy-related business ventures for decades, from sales of solar panel components, to windmill turbines, to electric car batteries and more. As the marketplace changes, our business must also evolve, and today we are not just investors, but are partners in several renewable power generation initiatives across the U.S. Our Power and Telecom Business Unit currently pursues sustainable infrastructure projects in wind, solar and geothermal, and has been an active investor from project inception on through to operations management. 

Wind Energy

We began making significant strides within the U.S. wind energy business in 2009 with the purchase of a 120MW wind farm in Martin County, Texas, which began commercial operations in February 2008. Our next significant wind power investment was joining GE and developer/managing member Caithness Energy as co-owners of the world’s largest wind farm, the 845-megawatt Shepherds Flat wind project near Arlington, Oregon.  In April 2012, we partnered with Duke Energy Renewables in a 50-50 ownership arrangement for two Kansas wind farms.  With a 50% stake in the 131MW Cimarron II Windpower Project in Gray County and the 168MW Ironwood Windpower Project in Ford County, we now have a more significant role in the project management of wind projects with long-term contracts to sell their generated electricity to power companies.

Solar Energy

In the solar market, we invested in our first U.S. project in 2012. The Desert Sunlight Solar project, a 550MW solar power project under construction in the Californian Mojave Desert, is the largest solar photovoltaic facility approved for U.S. public land, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior. The 4,100-acre project will generate enough electricity to supply more than 165,000 homes and displace 300,000 metric tons of greenhouse emissions per year. Desert Sunlight has secured Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) to supply clean energy to Californian customers for the next two decades. This solar project was initially developed by First Solar Inc., the largest U.S. utility-scale solar project developer, and today we share a co-investor role with our partners, GE Energy Financial Services and NextEra Energy Resources.

Geothermal Resources

Our subsidiary, Perennial Power Holdings, Inc. (PPH), is focused on acquiring and developing power generation assets including gas-fired and geothermal projects. We are well known around the world for our expertise in thermal and geothermal power plants and we provide one third of the worldwide supply of geothermal turbines. 

SC in the Americas’ renewable power initiatives are energizing the prospects of a cleaner and better world by helping to harness wind, solar and geothermal resources to produce sustainable power that will contribute to a cleaner environment and ensure the profitability of our energy business into the future.