Canada-based clean energy investor Brookfield Renewable Partners’ net loss narrowed to $32 million in the first quarter (Q1) of the financial year (FY) 2023 from $78 million year-over-year (YoY) due to robust hydropower generation across the portfolio, strong realized power pricing and asset availability.

Additionally, the company’s performance was helped by a $133 million foreign exchange gain for the January-March quarter compared to a $33 million loss YoY.

Brookfield’s adjusted Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) increased by 12% YoY to $559 million in Q1.

The company’s total revenue for the January-March period rose 18% YoY to $1.3 billion. Its power generation revenue increased by 19% YoY to $772 million.

Brookfield Renewable’s total generation capacity from wind, utility-scale solar, distributed energy, and hydroelectric projects increased by 11% to 8.2 GW compared to 7.4 GW in Q1 2022.

The investor’s total funds from operations (FFO) grew by 13% YoY to $275 million during Q1. The FFO of Brookfield from its business in Asia totaled $5 million, up from $4 million YoY.

During Q1 2023, the firm also agreed to acquire Australia-based integrated power generator Origin Energy for A$18.7 billion (~$12.5 billion).

Through the acquisition, Brookfield targets to accelerate the development of clean energy generation capacity while the transaction will enable the retirement of one of Australia’s largest coal-fired power generation plants.

Brookfield Renewable’s CEO Connor Teskey said, “We had an excellent start to the year, delivering solid double-digit FFO growth year-over-year. We also continued our elevated level of growth activity, as we commissioned approximately 700 megawatts of capacity, maintained our path to deliver approximately 5,000 megawatts this year, and signed transactions for over $8 billion of equity investment alongside our institutional partners.”

During the quarter, global investment firm KKR agreed to sell a 50% stake in renewable developer X-ELIO to Brookfield, the joint venture partner of KKR.

X-Elio is a fully integrated global solar development platform with 1.2 GW of operating and in-construction assets, 1.5 GW of late-stage development projects, and an additional approximately 12 GW development pipeline with at least land and/or grid connection secured.

Brookfield expanded its operations in India during the quarter. Last month, Avaada Group raised $1.07 billion from Brookfield Renewable to support its green hydrogen and green ammonia projects in India.

The funding is part of the company’s ongoing plan to raise $1.3 billion and will be made from the Brookfield Global Transition Fund.

The company also invested up to $360 million ($72 million net to Brookfield Renewable) to acquire a 55% stake in CleanMax, an India-based C&I renewable platform with an operating and development pipeline of 4.5 GW.