NRG Solar agrees to acquire solar development portfolio from US Solar

PRINCETON, USA: NRG Energy Inc., through its wholly owned subsidiary, NRG Solar, has entered into a definitive agreement with US Solar, an affiliate of Arclight Capital Partners LLC, to acquire a portfolio of solar development projects on nine sites in California and Arizona. The purchase price is subject to a confidentiality agreement between the parties.

The development projects acquired range in size from 20 megawatts (MW) to 99 MW with the potential to be operational between 2011 and 2013. The acquisition nearly doubles NRG Solar’s projects under development to 1,150 MW.

“US Solar has developed a project pipeline that gives us strategic depth in promising solar markets in which there is a public policy commitment to use this zero-emission, domestic peak period energy source,” said David Crane, NRG President and CEO.

“We expect the American public will increasingly demand that their energy come from these type of sources as they are confronted with the ever increasing human, environmental and strategic cost of our national dependence on fossil fuels.”

“Acquiring the nine development projects will be instrumental in expanding our clean energy portfolio and further establishing NRG’s leadership as a solar generation company,” said Tom Doyle, President, NRG Solar. “This agreement adds meaningful depth to NRG Solar’s development pipeline of strong solar projects that can compete well against other solar projects on efficiency, cost of power and return on investment.”

NRG is developing solar capacity at sites with strong solar resources, potential for long-term power offtake agreements with load-serving entities and established, easily accessible connections to power grids. These solar projects support NRG’s commitment to increase its portfolio of low and no carbon generation assets with diverse technologies including new nuclear generation, onshore and offshore wind, biomass projects and a commercial-scale carbon capture project for fossil-fueled generation.

NRG Solar is responsible for developing, constructing, financing and operating a multi-technology portfolio of solar power assets in North America. NRG now operates the largest photovoltaic solar project in California, a 21 MW facility in Blythe.

The solar power generated at Blythe alone will displace approximately 12,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually – the equivalent of taking over 2,200 cars off the road.