Headquartered in Vermont (USA), Northern Power Systems Inc (“NPS”) is one of the world's leading experts in the design of wind turbines and advanced control systems for remote hybrid power grids. Over the recent years, NPS has repositioned itself as a pure-play next generation wind turbinecompany under a new strong management and a powerful group of shareholders.

NPS’ competitive advantage resides in its mastery of permanent magnet direct drive ("PMDD") technology, the cutting-edge in turbine technology, which entails higher reliability and efficiency vs. traditional turbines, by avoiding the breakage-prone gear-box and by using the more efficient permanent magnet generators (vs. induction generators).

Until recently, NPS specialized in a 100 kW wind turbine for the community-scale market (i.e. the market for smaller wind turbines often owned by municipalities, schools, malls and farms). It now leverages its proprietary technology to scale up its business model by developing a much larger 2.2 MW turbine that aims to be one of the first and most reliable PMDD turbine to enter the utility-scale market.

The wind power market is expected to grow at a rate of 25% p.a. until 2020. NPS’s PMDD technology puts the Company in an exceptional position to benefit from this trend on a market where reliability and efficiency are two of the main purchasing criteria for project developers.

On November 16, 2009, Cobepa, acting on behalf of BeCapital, took a $15.0 m stake in the Company, by subscribing to a second round of equity financing. BeCapital invested alongside Allen & Co and RockPort Capital, two US-based private equity investors with premier expertise in cleantech investment.

Garrad Hassan and White & Case advised BeCapital on the transaction while NPS was advised by Allen & Co and Golenbock.