Newly created land investor Lightfield Partners LLC is working on two projects over USD 25m each anticipated to close in 1Q25, said Anthony Danti, partner and co-founder at Lightfield, in an interview with NPM.

Lightfield Partners, created in November 2024, aims to invests in land and infrastructure that supports the renewable energy industry, partnering with landowners and developers of solar, wind and energy storage projects to unlock the value of their real estate holdings via land purchases or lease monetizations, according to the website.

“We have a growing pipeline, with nearly USD 100m of investments targeted for the next 6 to 12 months,” added Jason Kahan, partner and co-founder of the company.

Within that pipeline, Danti and Kahan are evaluating projects from USD 400,000 to over USD 100m. “We find that the majority of transactions fall in the USD 2m to USD 25m range,” Kahan added.

As part of their new venture, and in their previous roles, both have undertaken transactions in almost every US power market, resulting on Lightfield taking a market agnostic approach.

Meanwhile, when addressing what differentiates Lightfield Partners from its competitors, Danti highlighted more than 15 years of experience in the renewable energy space, which have enabled Lightfield to “understand the needs and concerns of the renewable energy developer community, and provide best price and flexible terms for their land holdings to address not just their liquidity needs, but also their timing and other structuring concerns and issues.”

Lightfield Partners has already secured the backing of an equity partner, which remains unidentified, but Danti and Kahan describe as a large real estate investment firm with a background in telecommunications and oil and gas.

Additionally, they are in active discussions with additional capital providers. According to Kahan, the type of venture that Lightfield proposes offers safe and predictable cash flows, with limited downside and identifiable levers for upside. “This makes it appealing for all types of debt investors, including banks, private credit funds and other alternative lenders,” Kahan added.

From an investor’s, or lender’s, perspective, Lightfield approach to business offers the possibility of returns with mitigated risks, outside of a catastrophic event that would force a renewable asset to stop operations.

“Lease payments sit very high in the project’s waterfall, above tax equity and debt, which would insulate us from operational risks,” Kahan pointed out.

The main counterparty risk that Danti and Kahan focus on would be the source of revenue of the project, whether the offtaker of a power purchase agreement, or the analysis of energy prices in the region where a project is located, if the project sells its output in the spot market, on a merchant basis. “So long as the project is generating electricity, the risk that the rent will not be paid is very limited,” Kahan added.

Lightfield is working with expectations to deploy USD 250m to USD 500m over the next three to five years, with room for greater investment, Danti and Kahan said.

*This story was originally published exclusively for NPM subscribers.

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