Dive Brief:
- Southern Power, Southern Company's wholesale electricity subsidiary, has acquired the 150-megawatt Solar Gen 2 facility in Imperial County, California.
- Southern Power will pay First Solar, the plant developer, $508 million for the facility, according to an 8K form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
- First Solar will operate and maintain the plant when it comes online in Q4 2014. The plant's output will be bought by San Diego Gas & Electric under a 25-year power purchase agreement.
Dive Insight:
This latest deal will bring Southern Power's owned solar capacity to 338 MW. "The acquisition fits Southern Power's business strategy of growing the wholesale business in targeted markets," the company said in a statement.
Southern Company has not been widely seen as a solar-friendly utility, but that perception may be changing.
Georgia Power, a Southern Company regulated utility, recently inked deals for 515 MW of solar, adding that it would buy electricity from some of the smaller projects for less than 6.5 cents per kilowatt-hour. The utility was just named investor-owned utility of the year by the Solar Electric Power Association at the trade association's annual conference.
“Southern Company sponsored the gift bags,” Clean Power Finance Communications and Public Relations Director Alison Mickey told Utility Dive at the show. “It was the first thing I noticed when I registered. What was perceived as not the most progressive of utilities was a conference sponsor.”
