Independent power producer (IPP) Soltage and investment manager Harrison Street have formed a partnership to invest US$250 million in the former’s solar and energy storage project development pipeline.
Soltage will use the funds to install 450MW of distributed solar and energy storage projects throughout the US.
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Jesse Grossman, Soltage’s founder and chief executive officer, said that Harrison Street provides “significant resources and infrastructure investing expertise” to the partnership.
As part of the deal, the partnership will spend an initial US$30 million on developing 14.5MW of solar capacity spread out across five distributed renewables projects in Maine, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. The power generated will be used to supply offtakers that include utilities, corporations, and community groups.
Christopher Merrill, co-founder and chairman of the Harrison Street investment group, said that its capital and “industry expertise” would help to deploy renewables projects that “help a variety of end users” achieve their own decarbonisation targets, “from cities and states to major corporations”.
Soltage joined forces with an existing finance partner, Helios Power, in July 2019 to deploy a 200MW US solar pipeline, and expanded its scope to invest in both standalone energy storage and solar-plus-storage projects. The New Jersey-based IPP also purchased 14MW of solar assets in North Carolina from developer ReNew Petra in the same month. Last year, Soltage partnered with Helios again to invest in a 28MW solar portfolio that comprised of 10 projects in New Jersey, Illinois and Carolina, bringing its construction capacity to more than 100MW.
This latest partnership also brings Harrison Street’s renewable energy investment portfolio to more than 300MW across wind, solar and hydroelectric power.
Residential solar installations in the US have risen by 11% year-on-year to reach 3.1GW, according to figures published by the Solar Energy Industries Alliance and analyst Wood Mackenzie, hinting towards a rapid period of growth set to take place over the next decade.