Cornelius provided some details on Clearway’s near-term pipeline, which he said amounts to 4.5 GW of projects in 2028 and 2029 with an additional 2 GW of early-stage projects in the pipeline. Cornelius noted Clearway’s Dawn’s Mountain Wind, Rosamond South 1 Solar + Storage and Luna Valley Solar + Daggett 1 Storage projects have all been fully funded with Pine Forest Solar + Storage on track for funding by the end of the year.

Cornelius added that phase 1 of the firm’s Honeycomb storage portfolio is “on track” for construction and has been partially funded. Elsewhere, Cornelius said Clearway had been provided an offtake offer for its Rosamond South II and Spindle Storage projects and signed a commitment to begin construction on both before the end of the year. Additionally, he said the firm’s Royal Slope solar + storage project has been awarded a 20-year PPA with a Washington state municipal utility to serve “significant data center demand growth;” that project is on track for a 2027 COD.

Finally, Cornelius said the firm is advancing a currently unnamed storage project in the Western US that already has a PPA in place and is also targeting a 2027 COD.

Overall, Cornelius said the firm has 11 GW of late-stage projects to fill its 2030 growth objectives with its pipeline through 2029 COD vintages securing tax credit qualification. He says planning is currently underway for how to approach 2030 and beyond in a post-credit world but said the firm’s procurement strategy is “well-prepared for FEOC compliance” during that timeframe with planned slot reservations to safe harbor more than 5 GW of projects for 2030.

Cornelius said he considered Clearway to be “well-positioned for growth well beyond 2030” with projects being developed “at increasing scale” with average new project sizes ballooning from 90 MW in 2020 to more than 300 MW today with 500 MW expected to be the average by 2030.

Interestingly, Cornelius said the firm’s pipeline is being “optimized to prioritize projects tailed for Clearway while limiting investments in regions with more roadblocks.” Notably, he said over 90% of projects with 2031 and 2032 CODs are being focused on the Western US and PJM, which are the areas the firm considers renewables to be the most cost-competitive without tax subsidies.

In addition to the greenfield pipeline, Cornelius noted the firm’s announcement of an acquisition of Deriva Energy‘s 613 MW portfolio of solar projects spanning eight states in that same PJM and CAISO target area. Cornelius said he expected “opportunities to extend and enhance” the value of the acquisition in the next decade thanks to “battery hybridization in CAISO and contract extensions in PJM.” The acquisition is expected to close in 2Q26.

Data Center Growth

Cornelius said he expects data center growth to be a “core driver” of growth for Clearway, which has already signed 1.8 GW of capacity to data centers since mid-2024. He said the firm was actively pursuing the development of “multi-technology complexes” to serve data centers with between 1 and 5 GW of load in 2030 and beyond.

“If just one comes online, a single [data center partnership] could allow Clearway to meet its growth objectives for multiple years in the 2030s while aligning with its capital allocation framework,” Cornelius said.

Notably, Cornelius said Clearway is now developing flexible gas generation capacity to be paired with renewables to serve these “GW-class” data center loads “in high-interest locations” as part of the firm’s “long-run future.”

Repowerings

Finally, Cornelius detailed multiple ongoing wind repowerings that Clearway is currently undertaking, outlining four currently underway through 2027 with the expectation for more to be added to the pipeline in both WECC and ERCOT between 2027 and 2029.

Current repowerings include the 300 Mt. Storm project in West Virginia, 306 MW Goat Mountain project in Texas, 120 MW San Juan Mesa project in New Mexico and 137 MW Tuolumne project in Washington.

Clearway has offtake contracts lined up with all four projects including a Microsoft PPA for Mt. Storm, a 15-year PPA with an unspecified hyperscaler for Goat Mountain, a 20-year PPA with an unnamed client for San Juan Mesa and a PPA extension for Tuolumne.

Most of the repowerings are expected to be completed in 2027 with Mt. Storm on track for completion as soon as 1Q26.

*This story was originally published exclusively for NPM subscribers.