Charlottesville, Virginia-based renewable energy developer Apex Clean Energy has acquired a portfolio of 442.5MW solar projects under development from SolUnesco.
Image: Apex Clean Energy buys solar farms from SolUnesco. Photo: Courtesy of Zbynek Burival/Unsplash.
The solar projects are located in Virginia and the acquisition expands the nationwide portfolio of solar projects of Apex Clean Energy to more than 3GW, with nearly 700MW begin located in the Commonwealth.
The transaction includes the 150MW Carvers Creek, 150MW Moody Creek, 130MW Red Brick, and 12.5MW Rivanna projects located across the Commonwealth.
The four solar plants are expected to generate enough clean electricity to be supplied to nearly 72,000 US households and can contribute more than $11m in state and local tax revenues.
Apex Clean Energy president and CEO Mark Goodwin said: “Apex continuously seeks to grow our utility-scale wind and solar pipeline based on projects with the greatest potential to meet rapidly expanding market demand. The projects recently acquired from SolUnesco are expertly sited, have strong landowner support, and offer substantial environmental and economic benefits.
“We look forward to bringing these projects online, enabling significant job creation and new revenue streams in communities across the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
The company stated that it is focusing on its home state as a suitable location to deliver ‘around-the-clock’ clean energy to utility, corporate and industrial power customers.
With its 75MW Rocky Forge Wind and 80MW Dragonfly Solar have already secured county permit approvals, the company claims that it is uniquely positioned to supply virtually constant zero-carbon electricity at scale.
Last month, the company sold two of its wind farms to Algonquin Power & Utilities’ subsidiary and Engie North America. These include the 202MW Sugar Creek wind farm and the 152MW Dakota Range Wind III, respectively.
The Sugar Creek wind farm is located in Logan County in central Illinois and the Dakota Range Wind III is located in South Dakota.
The company had also signed a power purchase agreement with Xcel Energy for Dakota Range Wind III project. The Dakota Range wind farm is expected to begin operations in late 2020.