Cypress Creek Renewables, at times, has been viewed in the same lense as Pine Gate Renewables and Origis Energy, but its sponsor EQT Infrastructure has made a huge impact even as its peers struggles manifested in 2025.

All three developers raised equity capital from infrastructure vehicles in the past four years to convert to an independent power producer (IPP) clean energy. This was on the back of commercializing middle market solar projects in the Southeast, as one major strategy, and with plans to expand its pipeline out West.

Each deal faced the burden of trying to deliver returns off underwriting assumptions predicated on delivering a targeted amount of MWs on an annual basis. This was challenged out of the gate by queue backlog, subsequent reform and rising interest rates. Finally, the July 2025 passage of the OBBBA would accelerate construction timelines of solar-and-wind projects in the back half of the year as developers sought to avoid FEOC restrictions implemented in January 2026 and federal tax credits for those technologies sunsetting in July 2026.

Even before industry tailwinds were fully baked in, Origis announced at beginning of 2025 that it recapitalized its business with a new strategic investment from Brookfield’s Infrastructure Solutions (BISS) strategy and additional capital from its incumbent sponsor Antin Infrastructure Partners. Separately, Pine Gate filed for bankruptcy last month after aggressively tapping private capital to support both its pipeline, and its failing EPC business.

EQT, via its fifth infrastructure fund–EQT Infrastructure V fund–agreed to acquire CCR from certain funds managed by HPS Investment Partners and Temasek in a deal which closed in October 2021. While the deal closed at the peak of the market for renewable platform trades, a source noted that Temasek and HPS had deleveraged CCR the prior year with a debt-for-equity swap.

There was a reshuffling in the C-Suite at the onset of the buyout which led to then chief development officer Noah Hyte and Chief Commercial Officer Cassidy DeLine eventually leaving the company.

However, the sponsorship of EQT, which closed Fund V in 2021 having raised EUR 15.7bn (USD 18.28bn), has been a differentiator, as it executed on its pipeline in recent years.

“We believe in the long-term fundamentals of the market. The strength of EQT’s commitment, including our value creation model and capital, has allowed us to avoid distraction and focus on execution,” said Matthew Kestenbaum, a managing director at EQT, who spearheaded the 2021 investment in CCR, in emailed comments shared with NPM.

The five-year plan

While CCR, at times, has had trouble executing on some of its asset-recycling initiatives in recent years such as selling its DG platform Horizon and/or selling a portfolio of BESS projects in ERCOT, it also managed to double its fleet in the four years since the EQT acquisition.

NPM Interconnection queue data is tracking roughly 3.2 GW in operational solar-and-storage projects from Cypress Creek, up from 1.6 GW at the time of the original deal announcement in July 2021.

“We are focused on continuing to support and grow CCR’s capabilities and making sure the business is positioned to deliver on the generational infrastructure build-out driven by the power demands of AI,” added EQT’s Kestenbaum.

To advance its pipeline, CCR raised two credit facilities in 2022: a USD 450m credit facility in April 2022 from the credit arm of QIC, CPP Investments and AB Carval, followed by a separate USD 125m credit facility from Investec in May 2022, but it has not tapped private credit since then at the topco level.

Cypress Creek recently raised project finance to start construction of its 505 MWdc Hanson Solar facility in Coleman County, Texas. Earlier this year, it also got financing for 104 MW Ostrea Solar project in Yakima County, Washington. The paired Carriger Solar project could be next as it just got approval from the Washington State governor and is targeting Summer 2026 for financial close, according to a Cypress Creek spokesperson.

In 2025, Cypress Creek was also able to execute interconnection agreements on additional clean energy projects in Texas: Soleil Solar and Langer Storage and in Pennsylvania: Mora Solar, according to NPM SIGNALS.

In trying to bridge the gap between data centers and power providers, newly capitalized entities have emerged in recent years such as Earthrise Energy and Elevate Renewables, which sought to co-locate BESS projects with natural gas plants and provide flexible resources to data center. Separately, well-capitalized IPPs such as Intersect Power and Copia Power are developing utility-scale hybrid power generation specifically aimed at data centers.

“CCR itself is looking for ways to maximize value in our fleet and are actively engaged with data center developers and hyperscalers on these types of solutions, added Kestenbaum.

While some of its capital raising initiatives have not panned out, multiple sources indicated CCR had pivoted on selling Horizon as a platform and instead engaged the market bilaterally on assets within the portfolio. The process had gained some traction, noted those same sources.

The exit

The natural progress of EQT’s investment is to look at exit opportunities. The typical holding period for companies in the EQT’s value-add infrastructure strategy is in the five-to-seven-year range, said the source.

EDF plans to divest its US platform will be an interesting test case of whether the reservoir for platform equity deals has truly dried up. At the same time, near-term power demands driven by data centers and other large load sources have helped institutional inflows into the clean energy sector, at the project level, including a deal struck recently between Ares and Savion on a partnership for two operational solar projects and three projects under construction across four states.

Sources in the market indicated that one potential exit could be continuance vehicle, particularly as the secondaries market remains active and power demand remains high. Constellation Energy Corporation, for instance, struck a USD 16.4bn stock-and-cash deal at the beginning of 2025, to acquire Calpine. One of the shareholders, a USD 1.6bn continuance vehicle raised by Energy Capital Parters in June 2022, is expected to receive a robust return once the deal closes, said sources familiar with the situation.

EQT continues to assess the best exit route and timing in CCR, but Kestenbaum indicated it wasn’t clear if an exit event would occur in 2026.