Utility-scale solar developer Intersect Power has entered late-stage development on a large portfolio of solar power plants with a combined capacity of more than 1700MW.
The five shovel-ready projects, located in California and Texas, will begin construction in 2020.
The 425MW Juno project in Borden County will begin construction in February 2020, the 375MW Titan project in Culberson County, in Texas will begin construction in March, while the 250MW Aragorn project in Culberson Country, Texas, will begin construction in June.
In California the 350MW Athos 1 project in Riverside County will start construction in June and the 300MW Athos 2 project also in the same county will begin construction in October.
Intersect Power has contracted with local utilities and other wholesale energy buyers on a series of power purchase agreements as well as more sophisticated energy or renewable energy credit hedges, securing revenue profiles that offer superior risk-adjusted returns.
The company has negotiated a combination of purchase and lease agreements and finalised all material permits for the various sites, which are primarily located on disturbed former agricultural and grazing lands.
Intersect Power chief executive Sheldon Kimber said: “Over the past two years our team of roughly 20 people, with relatively little risk capital, has gone from a flat start to over 1.7GW of fully developed, contracted, shovel-ready projects.
“That type of value creation from such a small team is almost unprecedented in the marketplace.”
For the projects First Solar will supply more than 3.7 million thin-film photovoltaic modules as part of a multi-year deal, while NEXTracker will provide its NX HorizonTM solar trackers equipped with intelligent control software.
Signal Energy will be in charge of engineering, procurement and construction activities.
“Deep partnerships with the most innovative, reliable and collaborative suppliers gives us confidence that these power plants will reliably perform at the top end of expectations and maximize the financial returns to long-term equity investors and asset owners,” Kimber added.
First Solar chief commercial officer Georges Antoun said: “Intersect Power’s gigawatt-scale project portfolio represents an ambitious undertaking by one of the more innovative solar developers in the US, and we are honoured to be a part of it.
“Given that this order is the largest one to date for our Series 6 modules, it offers strong validation of the technology’s performance and bankability advantages and speaks to the confidence that Intersect has in our ability to deliver on our commitments.”
Signal Energy’s preconstruction team collaborated with Intersect Power very early in the process to find the lowest cost of energy components to complete the development of the projects.
Company president Greg Pawson said: “We have extensive experience constructing renewables projects in Texas and California, and look forward to working with Intersect to build these power plants and to continue to drive the solar market through creativity and performance while prospering our long-term relationships with all stakeholders in the value chain.”