Distributed energy platform Scale Microgrids has acquired over 100MW of community solar projects in New York from Netherlands-based developer Gutami.
The acquisition comes after the distributed energy platform closed a US$225 million non-recourse project finance debt facility earlier this month.
With this deal, Scale Microgrids expects to fund the construction and operation of a portfolio of microgrids, community solar, rooftop solar and battery energy storage system projects across several markets including California, Oregon, the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Colorado, North Carolina, New Jersey and New York.
Investment banking entity KeyBanc Capital Markets acted as joint lead arranger and structuring administrative agent on the loan, while City National Bank contributed as joint lead arranger and Energetic Insurance provided a credit insurance policy enabling access to the bank lending market.
Moreover, the community solar projects acquired from Gutami are in late-stage development and will be built, owned and operated by Scale Microgrids.
“This transaction endorses our strategy to develop solar projects in New York State from 2020 onwards. Supported by the Inflation Reduction Act we will now expand our development activities to other states, preferably states with similar community solar programs. The US is one of the key pillars of the Gutami strategy,” said Gerben Pek, CEO at Gutami.
Deployment of community solar in the US at the end of 2022 reached 5.2GW, with the state of New York accounting for nearly half of the capacity, a market that is expected to more than double in the next five years.
With community solar as one of the key drivers of solar PV uptake in New York, the New York State Public Service Commission recently approved a US$4.4 billion transmission upgrades set to boost installed renewable capacity by 3.5GW.
PV Tech publisher Solar Media will be organising the second edition of Large Scale Solar USA Summit in Austin, Texas during 3-4 May. With the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) targeting US$369 billion for clean energy and US$40 billion for manufacturing, the solar industry has never been brighter. The IRA, securing financing for future projects or supply chain bottlenecks will be among the discussions at this year’s event. More information, including how to attend, can be read here.