Dubbed Project Amp, it will be built over four years and financed by Bank of America Merrill Lynch and owned by industrial real estate firm Prologis. NRG Energy will invest in the first 15-megawatt phase of the rollout with an option on the remaining phases.
“We think this will be a game changer for distributed solar,” Jonathan Plowe, head of new energy and infrastructure solutions at Bank of America, said in an interview. “It’s a big step forward for solar energy and one which we will think will transform the energy landscape.”
The electricity generated by the solar arrays installed on some 750 commercial rooftops managed by Prologis will be sold to local utilities. Altogether, the arrays will produce enough electricity at peak output to power nearly 100,000 homes.
“Even though it has an industrial scale, it’s very easy on the environment,” said Plowe. “It’s effectively a huge solar power plant spread across the country. There’s no transmission to be built and no construction in green fields.’
Bank of America will provide $1.4 billion in debt financing for the $2.6 billion project. The federal loan guarantee will cover 80 percent of the $1.4 billion in debt.
“Nothing near this scale in rooftop solar has been done before,” said Plowe. “The Department of Energy has helped bring the cost down so we can make it happen on that kind of scale.”
Project Amp will spread solar far beyond states like California and New Jersey that offer lucrative incentives for renewable energy. Among the states slated for solar projects are South Carolina, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee.
“The majority of states that we’re targeting do have some kind of program or mandate,” said Plowe. “In those states that don’t, we think the ability to finance development in those states will be very attractive to utilities.”
For NRG Energy, a New Jersey-based power producer that has invested in large solar power plants, the deal signals a big move into rooftop solar.
“We have been involved in the distributed space in a small way before,” said Richard Grosdidier, vice president of finance for NRG Solar, a subsidiary of NRG Energy. “It’s been a market that we’ve been anxious to pursue in a major way.”
NRG will invest in a 15-megawatt phase of the project that will sell electricity to utility Southern California Edison.
The project should also boost manufacturers facing subsidy cuts in Europe and the prospect of falling photovoltaic prices as supplies of solar panels pile up.
