Soltage and Harrison Street, an alternative energy investment firm, have announced joint investment in a 20 MW project portfolio of community solar assets and Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) solar projects located in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Maine.
This 20 MW portfolio marks the second investment with Harrison Street for Soltage’s Iris capital vehicle, with the other being the March 2021 announcement that the two would collaborate on a $250 million partnership to fund solar and other clean energy infrastructure, with the ultimate goal of deploying 450 MW of new distributed solar and storage projects across the United States.
All of the assets will be owned by the partnership and operated by Soltage. The partnership’s first investment after the initial $250 partnership announcement was a 14.5 MW portfolio of solar assets, representing $30 million of project costs.
This portfolio will serve customers including investor-owned utilities purchasing electricity via PURPA contracts, as well as businesses buying solar to meet clean energy goals and secure reduced electricity costs.
Earlier this summer, on July 27, Soltage announced that it raised a $130M debt facility led by Silicon Valley Bank, with that capital set to be used to finance a 110 MW national portfolio of projects across six states: North Carolina, South Carolina, Maine, Illinois, Virginia and Maryland.
Like today’s announcement, the projects included in that portfolio will be community solar assets and PURPA installations, again serving investor-owned utilities and businesses. It’s a bit strange that both announcements have referenced the building of community solar projects, yet none of the potential energy buyers listed are homeowners or those without access to distributed generation of their own.
Unlike today’s announcement, significant progress has already been made on many of the projects in that July portfolio, with soltage reporting that the construction of this portfolio will be staged over the next three quarters, with construction currently underway on ten projects across four states.
