Borrego Solar and sPower Break Ground on Suffolk County Solar Project

SAN DIEGO and SALT LAKE CITY, Oct. 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Borrego Solar Systems Inc., a leading designer, developer, installer and financier of grid-tied solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, and sPower (Sustainable Power Group), a prominent renewable energy provider, today announced that they are commencing construction on a solar project located in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York.

Upon completion, the facility, located on sPower-owned land in the Town of Riverhead, will have the capacity to produce 6.3MWac (9.1MWdc) of solar energy.

"The sPower Riverhead Solar facility has been designed to be a very clean, very safe and very quiet neighbor," said Ryan Creamer, CEO at sPower. "We are pleased that construction has begun and are confident that together with Borrego, we'll soon be able to start providing reliable, renewable power to PSEG-LI rate payers while creating local sustainable jobs."

sPower has two additional projects in Suffolk County which are currently under development with Borrego Solar slated as the EPC. The projects will supply energy to PSEG-LI under the utility's first Clean Solar Initiative Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) program and will make sPower the owner of the largest portfolio of solar facilities under the program.

"These projects mark Borrego and sPower's second portfolio under a utility FIT program—the first being an 8.3MW portfolio under Southern California Edison's California Renewable Energy Small Tariff," said Mike Hall, CEO at Borrego Solar. "Our partnership with sPower has been truly symbiotic. sPower is able to identify viable projects across the country early on, they have a strong balance sheet, and they've vertically integrated the processes of land acquisition, development, financing and long term ownership, making our experience with them not only smooth and efficient, but transparent as well. We look forward to building many more megawatts of solar capacity for them."

When fully operational, the sPower Riverhead solar project is expected to generate enough clean solar energy to serve the electrical needs of about 1,100 homes per year, displacing roughly 8,300 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) annually -- the equivalent of taking more than 1,700 cars off the road, or the same amount of carbon that would be sequestered by 6,800 acres of US forests in a year.

"Based on our track record of successfully teaming with Borrego and the support and commitment from PSEG-LI, the pieces have begun to fall into place for these projects," said Creamer. "As a diversified EPC, Borrego is used to filling many roles, making them a reliable and knowledgeable partner."

sPower inked a 20-year power purchase agreement with PSEG-LI at a fixed rate of $0.22/kWh.  PSEG-LI voluntarily launched the FIT program to add more clean energy into their portfolio and employ local workers. PSEG-LI is also requiring interconnection at distribution levels, which will improve reliability of the utility's electrical grid. 

About sPower: Headquartered in Salt Lake City, with offices in San Francisco and New York City, sPower is a leading independent power producer (IPP) that owns and/or operates more than 130 utility and distributed electrical generation systems across the United States and the UK. With greater than a gigawatt between construction and pipeline, sPower is actively buying renewable assets in any stage of development, as well as working to acquire operating sustainable energy projects in North America and the UK. Concurrently, sPower's land division is seeking landowner partners to develop green energy projects and landowners/developers with existing renewables assets who can benefit from liquidating current land leases. sPower is a portfolio company of Fir Tree Partners, a leading global investment fund with more than 20 years of investing history and approximately $13 billion of capital under management. For more information, visit www.sPower.com.

About Borrego Solar
Established in 1980, Borrego Solar Systems, Inc. is one of the nation's leading financiers, designers, developers and installers of commercial and utility solar power systems. Borrego Solar's photovoltaic systems are efficient, reliable and cost-effective. With more than three decades of experience and more than 1,000 solar power installations completed—totaling over 150 MW—Borrego Solar offers a complete line of solar system design and installation services throughout North America. Borrego Solar was recently ranked as the #2 commercial EPC in the United States and the #2 commercial contractor in California by Solar Power World. For more information, visit www.borregosolar.com.

Sarah Horn
MSLGROUP on behalf of Borrego Solar
(415) 512-0770
[email protected]

Naomi Keller
VP Marketing
sPower
801.679.3514
[email protected]

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SOURCE sPower

Related Links

http://www.sPower.com