Greenbacker Renewable Energy Company LLC, through a wholly owned subsidiary, has purchased a 20 MW DC pre-operational solar portfolio from TUUSSO Energy, a Seattle-based utility-scale solar developer.
The portfolio’s three 6.7 MW DC projects are Greenbacker’s first assets in Washington.
Located in Kittitas County, the projects – Camas, Penstemon and Urtica – are all expected to reach commercial operation in 2022. Each has a long-term power purchase agreement in place with the same investment-grade utility offtaker. When completed, the renewable power produced by the portfolio will contribute to the state’s goal of achieving carbon-neutral electricity production by 2030 and 100% clean power by 2045.
“We’re thrilled to enter a new market with three projects that will deliver cheaper clean power to consumers,” says Charles Wheeler, CEO of GREC. “This expansion is the result of a successful long-term collaboration with the solar development experts at TUUSSO. We’ve been involved with the portfolio since the planning stage, and today we’re very pleased to include it in our fleet of renewables projects driving a clean energy future in the state of Washington.”
To help reach its clean energy goals, Washington has a number of supportive solar policies, including several tax exemptions for qualifying solar energy equipment and a net metering incentive, which allows solar owners to feed any unused energy back into the grid, offsetting their power bills by an equal amount.
“Greenbacker has been a great partner on these projects, and we’re very pleased to reach this milestone,” states Owen Hurd, CEO of TUUSSO. “These projects would not have been possible without Greenbacker’s unwavering commitment, and the collaborative efforts of local landowners, the Washington Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, Puget Sound Energy, the Governor’s Office and other individuals. We look forward to beginning commercial operation in 2022 and hope these projects will encourage more solar in our home state in years to come.”
Greenbacker’s fleet of sustainable infrastructure projects comprises over 2.6 GW of generating capacity (including the TUUSSO portfolio and assets that are to be constructed). Since 2016, Greenbacker’s real assets have produced approximately 3.4 million MWh of clean energy.
