Galway Sustainable Capital has taken a majority stake in Forsite Renewables, a US solar and battery developer with a pipeline of more than 4 GW. No price was disclosed. Most developers find land and then fight for a grid connection. Forsite started somewhere else: it bought coal-fired power plants.
Key takeaways
- Sterling Power Opportunities, a subsidiary of Galway Sustainable Capital, announced on 11 January 2024 that it had acquired a majority stake in Forsite Renewables, with the deal value not disclosed.
- Forsite Renewables, a Charlotte, North Carolina developer owned by Forsite Development, has purchased and remediated five coal-fired power plants and repurposes infrastructure from ageing coal plants for fast-tracked utility-scale renewable projects.
- Forsite's pipeline holds 14 projects with more than 4 GW of capacity, including over 2.5 GW of solar, across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Illinois, Indiana, North Dakota and Maryland.
- Forsite controls about 29,000 acres for power generation: 7,500 acres and 1.3 GW with leases executed, 10,250 acres and 1.5 GW with leasing ongoing, and 11,800 acres and 1.3 GW with leasing commenced.
- Enerdatics records 30 acquisitions of US utility-scale solar companies announced in 2023 and 2024, 27 of them involving businesses whose portfolios were still under development.
Why would a solar developer buy coal plants?
Because the hardest part of building a large solar farm is often not the panels or the land but the connection to the grid. A coal plant that is closing sits on top of exactly that: substations, transmission lines and an existing grid connection. Reusing them can shorten the most time-consuming stage of development.
Leap's record describes Forsite's model in those terms. The company is known for repurposing infrastructure from ageing coal plants into fast-tracked development of utility-scale renewable projects. It has purchased and remediated five coal-fired power plants so far. Remediation means cleaning up the contamination a coal site leaves behind before the land can be reused.
That gives Forsite a different cost structure from a greenfield developer. It takes on environmental clean-up risk in exchange for infrastructure that would otherwise take years to secure. Whether that trade pays off depends on how much of the pipeline actually sits on, or connects through, those sites, and the record does not break the pipeline down that way.
How much of the 4 GW is real?
About a third of it is under signed land leases, and the rest is at earlier stages. The record splits Forsite's 29,000 acres into three bands. Only the first, 7,500 acres supporting 1.3 GW, has executed leases. The second, 10,250 acres for 1.5 GW, is still in negotiation. The third, 11,800 acres for 1.3 GW, has only just begun.
That is normal for an early-stage developer, and Leap classes the deal as early-stage. A lease is the first step in a long sequence that runs through permits, interconnection studies, offtake contracts and financing. Each band carries more risk than the one before it, and in the same pipeline the land per megawatt rises from under six acres in the executed band to about nine in the earliest.
The 4.1 GW figure in Leap's structured data is the full pipeline. Solar accounts for more than 2.5 GW of it, and the record does not split out the remainder. Those numbers describe what Forsite could build, not what it has built.
What does Galway get beyond the pipeline?
A team and a method. Leap's record states that Galway will retain Forsite's existing management to lead ongoing development and operations, which is typical when the buyer is paying for a capability rather than a fixed set of assets. The coal plant model is that capability.
The deal is Galway's 34th strategic acquisition, which says something about the buyer. A firm on its 34th deal is assembling a portfolio of businesses, not a single portfolio of projects. Forsite was advised by KeyBanc Capital Markets.
The closest parallel in Leap came two days earlier, when Energy Capital Partners bought Triple Oak Power, a US wind developer with about 8 GW of projects, for an undisclosed price. In both cases the buyer was acquiring a development engine whose projects were almost entirely unbuilt.
Enerdatics records 30 acquisitions of US utility-scale solar companies announced in 2023 and 2024. Twenty-seven involved businesses whose portfolios were still under development, and only three were operational. Fourteen of the 30 carry a disclosed value. Among the development-stage deals, only four can be priced per megawatt in Leap, and their median is about $0.11 million per MW of pipeline. That is a thin sample, but it shows how heavily the market discounts megawatts that have not yet cleared permitting and interconnection.
What does the deal signal for US solar development?
It signals that grid access was becoming the asset buyers were really paying for. A developer that can bring projects to a connection faster than its rivals has an edge that a list of leased acres alone does not capture. Forsite's coal plant model is one route to that edge.
It also signals continued demand for development platforms rather than individual projects. Corporate deals for whole developers let buyers secure teams, pipelines and methods in one step. Platform investors in other markets have followed similar logic; I Squared's investment in Origo Energia in Brazil the same week was priced on what Origo planned to build rather than what it already ran.
The figure that will decide this deal is not disclosed and may never be. It is the share of Forsite's 4.1 GW that reaches construction. The executed leases cover 1.3 GW. Everything beyond that remains to be won.
Frequently asked questions
Who acquired Forsite Renewables? Sterling Power Opportunities, a subsidiary of Galway Sustainable Capital, acquired a majority stake in Forsite Renewables, announced on 11 January 2024. The deal value was not disclosed.
What is Forsite Renewables' pipeline? Forsite has 14 projects with more than 4 GW of capacity across eight US states, including over 2.5 GW of solar, and about 29,000 acres of land under lease or in leasing.
What makes Forsite different from other solar developers? Forsite repurposes infrastructure from ageing coal plants to fast-track utility-scale renewable projects, and has purchased and remediated five coal-fired power plants.
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