UK-headquartered firm Aggreko Energy Transition Solutions has closed US$66 million in loan financing to support the development of 88.5MW of distributed solar capacity in the US.
The portfolio is spread across the states of California, New York and Texas, and consists of commercial and industrial (C&I) and community solar assets for a range of customers, including utilities and low- and moderate-income consumers.
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The funds will be used to cover the acquisition and construction costs of the projects and are structured as a delayed-draw term loan aligned to project completion milestones, according to Aggreko. KeyBanc Capital Markets led the deal and served as the transaction’s administrative agent.
“We are thrilled to be building upon our long-term relationship with KeyBanc to fuel the growth of our C&I and community solar portfolios for our customers,” said Aggreko Energy Transition Solutions president Jerry Polacek. “Through this transaction, we’re able to demonstrate the value creation of the projects that we’re bringing online and reinvest funds into the next wave of solar and battery storage assets under development.”
The news is Aggreko’s latest investment into the distributed solar space, following its acquisition of C&I solar company Infiniti Energy over the summer. Aggreko’s newest portfolio will have close to three times the capacity of Infiniti Energy’s operating and under-development portfolio and represents significant growth in the company’s ambitions in the US distributed solar sector.
Earlier this year, Jeff Cramer, president and CEO of the Coalition for Community Solar Access (CCSA) told PV Tech Premium that the distributed solar sector was drawing increased attention from companies in particular.
Indeed, figures from the US Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie note that the US added 427MW of commercial PV capacity in the second quarter of this year, and the commercial solar sector is expected to add over 2GW of capacity in 2024. The groups also expected commercial solar installations to increase further over time, reaching around 3GW of new capacity installations in 2029.
However, the same report notes that community solar installations have fallen, with the 270MW of new capacity added in the second quarter of this year a 12% decline on both the second quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024. SEIA and Wood Mackenzie expect annual community solar additions to not exceed 1.5GW this decade, and for annual installations to fall each year from 2025 to 2029, as “emerging state markets” are not growing as quickly as expected, and 2024 has been a “year of disappointments” from a policy perspective.
