LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Warehouse and distribution facilities developer ProLogis and Recurrent Energy will team up develop 4.8 megawatts of solar power projects in Spain, by the middle of 2010.
ProLogis said on Tuesday it will lease industrial rooftop space in Barcelona and Madrid to power provider Recurrent Energy, which will finance, own and operate the envisioned solar systems and eventually sell the resultant power to local Spanish utilities through a feed-in tariff.
Neither company revealed the financial terms of the deal.
The projects will be spread out over eight rooftops in the two cities, with construction expected to start in a month and slated to finish in the middle of 2010.
Recurrent Energy's chief executive, Arno Harris, said the project — where an established renewable energy developer rents rooftops from a major real estate owner and uses the space as a site — could provide a model for future solar power projects.
"We feel we've cracked the code on how to tap large industrial roofs as solar sites," Harris said.
He pointed to challenges in developing solar rooftop systems if projects were signed one at a time. Harris added that the process became more efficient and scalable when there is a single lease transaction that covers several rooftops and a single arrangement to sell the power.
For its projects with ProLogis, Recurrent Energy will use flexible thin-film solar laminates. Harris said that the company has a pipeline of 500 MW of solar power projects — each between 2 and 20 MW — in development.
ProLogis also announced on Tuesday it had formed a global renewable energy group to drive business, manage installations and provide consultant services in its renewable energy program.
ProLogis has more than 450 million square feet of rooftop space worldwide. And with the new project with Recurrent, the company will have 11 MW of solar installations around the world.
