Another day, another solar deal. San Francisco’s Recurrent Energy on Wednesday will announce that it is acquiring a 350-megawatt portfolio of photovoltaic projects from UPC Solar of Chicago as the industry continues to consolidate.
“Since the financial crisis set in last year we’ve kept an eye out for opportunities to pick up a pipeline of projects,” Recurrent CEO Arno Harris told Green Wombat. “You’re seeing companies like Recurrent that are well-capitalized take advantage of the market consolidation.”
Recurrent, which last year scored $75 million in funding from private equity firm Hudson Clean Energy Partners, installs large-scale solar arrays on commercial rooftops and at government facilities and then sells the electricity generated back to the hosts under long-term power purchase agreements.
The deal puts Recurrent in the power plant business as UPC’s portfolio includes a number of 10-megawatt projects in Ontario designed to take advantage of the province’s generous feed-in tariff for solar farms. “It’s a significant addition to our project pipeline,” Harris said. The projects are in various stages of development but Recurrent expects that 100 megawatts will be completed by 2012. The company stands to benefit from an expected decline in the price of solar panels this year.
Harris declined to reveal the financial terms of the deal but said that Recurrent is putting relatively little money up front. “We wrote a small check to compensate UPC Solar for the work done so far and we’ve committed to continue funding projects,” Harris said. “Then they’ll get a bonus paid at end for completed projects.”
The deal follows thin-film solar company First Solar’s (FSLR)’s $400 million acquisition this month of Silicon Valley startup OptiSolar’s 1,850 megawatt pipeline of photovoltaic power projects, including a 550-megawatt power plant to be built for California utility PG&E (PCG). The same day as the OptiSolar deal, Spanish solar developer Fotowatio bought San Francisco solar financier MMA Renewable Ventures’ project portfolio.
Green Wombat 
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