Norway-based Scatec Solar ASA has entered into financing agreements totaling $157 million for construction of the 104 MW Red Hills solar power plant in Parowan, Utah. Total investment for the plant is estimated at $188 million.
Scatec Solar developed the project as well as structured the project's financing, which includes tax equity, debt financing and sponsor equity. All the sponsor equity will be provided by Scatec Solar. The Wall Street Journal reports that Google is the tax equity investor on the deal.
The Utah Red Hills Renewable Energy Park is expected to generate approximately 210 GWh of electricity per year, which will be fed into the grid under a 20-year power purchase agreement with PacifiCorp's Rocky Mountain Power.
The ground-mounted photovoltaic solar facility, being developed on approximately 650 acres of privately owned land, will deploy approximately 325,000 photovoltaic modules on a single-axis tracking system and will interconnect to an existing transmission line. It received regulatory approval in April 2014.
‘We are very pleased to finalize financing for the Red Hills project and start construction of this first project in the U.S. where we retain ownership,’ says Raymond Carlsen, CEO of Scatec Solar. ‘When complete, the Red Hills solar plant will be Scatec Solar's largest developed and constructed project in North America.’
A recent report from the Solar Energy Industries Association says Utah's solar sector is experiencing an impressive upswing.
