Leading independent energy company Tenaska and Soltage, a full-service renewable energy company developing, financing and operating solar power plants across the United States, today announced the acquisition of a portfolio of solar generating assets in a number of states, including Massachusetts and Connecticut. This is Tenaska’s first transaction in a portfolio-level investment vehicle with Soltage; Tenaska contributed a second corporate investment in the renewable company in March.
The majority of the capital will be deployed for the construction of new assets, which Tenaska and Soltage will own and Soltage will manage and operate. Those assets will sell power to a combination of municipal and health care offtakers under Net Metering Credit and Power Purchase agreements, with commercial operation dates expected in late 2015 and mid-2016. The portfolio also includes several solar generation assets already in commercial operation in various northeastern states. This investment continues Soltage’s momentum as it expects to deploy more than $250 million for roughly 125 megawatts (MW) of solar projects through 2015 and 2016.
“Distributed solar generation empowers government and corporate consumers to lock in electricity costs well below utility rates, even if they can’t host onsite systems,” said Jesse Grossman, Soltage co-founder and CEO. “Rising electricity prices and falling project costs continue to make solar a smart investment for forward-looking utilities and consumers.”
“Tenaska is pleased to deploy long-term capital into the rapidly growing distributed solar sector,” said Tim Hemig, Tenaska managing director, distributed solar investments. “We continue to be impressed with Soltage’s ability to assemble strong portfolios of solar projects.”
Soltage develops, finances, installs, owns and operates solar power generating stations, providing electricity to commercial, industrial, educational, utility and municipal customers under long-term contracts. The company owns and operates 85 MWdc of generation capacity across eight states.
Tenaska is consistently ranked by Forbes magazine as one of America’s largest privately held companies, with approximately 11,000 MW of power generating assets under management, including approximately 450 MWdc of utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) and distributed solar generation projects operating or under construction.
Roughly 16.6 gigawatts (GW) of utility-scale solar PV capacity is currently in development across the U.S., and project costs are forecast to fall 40 percent by 2020 according to GTM Research. The U.S. Energy Information Administration projects a 2.6 percent annual growth in electricity prices, while annual power consumption is predicted to grow 0.7 percent for industrial customers and 0.5 percent for commercial customers through 2040.
