First Solar In 1.5-Gigawatt Chile Deal While Google Puts $200 Million Into Texas Wind

As growth in the solar market slows in Europe and remains uncertain elsewhere, First Solar announced Wednesday that it has acquired a Chilean solar company with a 1,500-megawatt pipeline of projects.

Google, meanwhile, has invested $200 million in the 161-megawatt Spinning Spur Wind Project built by French firm EDF RenewableEnergy in the Texas Panhandle near Amarillo.

“We look for projects like Spinning Spur because, in addition to creating more renewable energy and strengthening the local economy, they also make for smart investments: they offer attractive returns relative to the risks and allow us to invest in a broad range of assets,” Kojo Ako-Asare, senior manager in Google’s corporate finance division, wrote in a blog post on Wednesday. “We’re also proud to be the first investor in an EDF Renewable Energy project that is not a financial institution, as we believe that corporations can be an important new source of capital for the renewable energy sector.”

Finding corporate patrons to put hundreds of millions of dollars into wind projects has become increasingly important given the limited pool of traditional financiers willing to risk the uncertainty over a federal production tax credit that is crucial to the industry. Congress this month extended the credit for another year, allowing developers to qualify for the subsidy as long as they begin construction of a wind farm in 2013. But the future of the credit beyond this year remains, as always, in doubt.

“The partnership between our companies reflects a departure from sourcing investment capital from traditional financial institutions for our renewable energy projects,” Jim Peters, vice president of project finance for EDF Renewable Energy, said in a statement. “This transaction provides an opportunity for a leading renewable energy developer to join forces with a leading technology company to create value for both our companies and our respective customers.”

For First Solar, the acquisition of Solar Chile gives the Arizona-based photovoltaic panel manufacturer and developer a big pipeline of projects to keep its factories humming while collecting development and operation fees from the construction of solar power plants.

“Combining Solar Chile’s market knowledge and promising project portfolio with First Solar’s resources, technology and strong execution track record offers Chile a rapid and proven path to add significant solar generation capacity, helping to meet high energy demand and support economic growth,” First Solar chief executive Jim Hughes said in a statement.