Canada’s Grasshopper Solar has bought a 278MW, 12-project solar portfolio in Pennsylvania from clean energy developer Glidepath Ventures for more than US$300 million.
Ontario-based Grasshopper will be the long-term owner-operator of the distributed generation projects. It will manage power marketing, project financing – including equity, debt and tax equity – and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC).
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Glidepath, headquartered in the Philadelphia suburbs, will handle the development, interconnection and permitting of the projects.
The projects will be commissioned between 2020 and 2022 and will double the number of solar assets in Pennsylvania once live, Grasshopper and Glidepath said in a joint press release.
Statistics from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) suggest that the state is currently home to roughly 475.15MW of PV.
Redwood Energy worked as the transaction's financial adviser, while Orrick served as legal adviser to Grasshopper, and Greene Hurlocker as legal adviser to Glidepath.
Grasshopper chief solar development officer Jonathan Persaud said that his company was “excited” to be entering the PJM market, which “has stable characteristics for ongoing solar development.”
The market lies at the heart of a row between federal energy watchdog FERC and states and clean energy advocates. Last December, the former issued an order requiring that PJM expand the scope of its minimum offer price rule in a way that will blunt the impact of state-subsidised resources, like renewables, on the market.
PJM is the nation’s largest electric grid operator, covering 13 states and the District of Columbia.
The prospects and challenges of solar's new era in the US will take centre stage at Large Scale Solar USA 2020 (Austin, Texas, on 23-24 June 2020).
