Pacifico Energy raises $265.6m with new PV investment fund, picks up 35 MW project in Japan

Pacifico Energy, a utility-scale renewables developer with a portfolio of more than 1 GW of capacity under development, has raised about JPY 29 billion ($265.6 million) with the launch of its second solar investment fund.

The Tokyo-based company’s Fund II will include 216 MW (DC) of solar capacity across five project sites in Japan. To mark the fund’s launch, the developer also completed the acquisition of the fund’s first project — a 35 MW installation in Tochigi prefecture, north of Tokyo. It said in an online statement that it plans to acquire the remaining four PV projects over the course of the coming year.

Nomura Securities and Goldman Sachs Japan served as the co-placement agents for the new fund. Baker McKenzie provided legal counsel, Pacifico Energy said.

The developer — which currently has more than 1 GW of solar and wind projects in development and/or operation — will also offer asset management services to the PV projects included in Fund II.

The company raised JPY 15.5 billion with its first PV investment fund, which was launched in September 2017. The first fund included more than 100 MW (DC) of solar capacity, and the company claims that it is still “outperforming its target returns.” It aims to launch more renewable energy funds in the future, likely by mixing its own PV projects with “carefully chosen external solar assets,” it said.

Pacifico Energy is one of the biggest utility-scale PV developers in the Japanese market. Its largest operational projects include a 96.2 MW solar array in Hosoe, Miyazaki prefecture, but it is also building a massive 257.7 MW solar project in Okayama prefecture, west of Osaka. Earlier this year, it started constructing a 102.1 MW (DC) solar array on a former golf course west of Osaka in the city of Ako. It expects to connect the project to the grid in spring 2021.

The company has also started building solar projects in Vietnam and South Korea in recent years. In addition, it is now developing 1 GW of offshore wind capacity at two sites in Japan.