Prior to the acquisition of a large number of assets in any industry, it is imperative that the value of those assets is accurately assessed and quantified. This is particularly important with regard to wind energy in which projects are both fuelled and impacted by the weather. With the purchase of First Wind, SunEdison’s power plant holding company, TerraForm, has acquired 521 MW of active wind and solar power plant and more than 8 GW of total pipeline, backlog and leads. Asset valuation was therefore required to determine the worth of First Wind’s existing portfolio and Vaisala was selected by SunEdison to carry out this task.
All the parties involved were also working against tight deadlines and needed to act as quickly as possible in order to complete the financial due diligence.
“When negotiating such an important and sizeable acquisition, time pressure can be considerable and the ability to act fast can make or break a deal” said Barnaby Olson, Director of Special Projects at SunEdison. “It’s nonetheless critical for the success of the investment that early due diligence work is both thorough and comprehensive. Having worked with Vaisala 3TIER Services in the past, we were well aware of the team’s competency, dedication, and ability to turn work around extremely quickly – and these attributes were invaluable to us as we successfully finalized the purchase of First Wind.”
Vaisala completed analysis on 377.5 MW on an accelerated timeline in order to accommodate the transaction. This represents nearly a quarter of First Wind’s development portfolio. The work entailed quality control analysis of available meteorological tower data at the project sites to deliver long-term net production numbers, calibrated to local conditions, with all loss values incorporated (such as, wake deficits, extreme weather, and electrical and grid downtime).
The acquisition is a transformative move to diversify the range of renewable energy projects SunEdison can develop and to aggressively increase its portfolio.
Vaisala has carried out asset valuation analysis on both operational and in development wind projects totaling over 30 GW of wind capacity worldwide. The company provides a wide range of measurement, assessment, forecasting, and asset management products and services to support the development of efficient, reliable, and profitable electrical energy systems around the globe.
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