Five community solar gardens in rural areas of the state service a wide range of subscribers including some income-qualified households
New York, NY, Mar. 29, 2021– Greenbacker Renewable Energy Company LLC (“GREC”) announced today that construction has been completed on a 10 MWdc portfolio made up of five community solar gardens in southern Colorado.
The solar projects were purchased in 2019 from Community Energy (“CE”), who also stayed on to handle the engineering, procurement, and construction (“EPC”) throughout the building process. Along with a built-in EPC provider, the portfolio also came with long-term subscription agreements with strong investment-grade offtakers, under Xcel Energy’s Solar*Rewards Community (“SRC”) program.
The five community solar gardens (Alden, Monte Vista 2, Rock Creek 2, Platteville, and Alamosa Solar South) are located in rural areas of the state, and service a wide range of subscribers. This includes a population of income-qualified households, who receive donated solar credits through the project, lowering their electric bills each month.
GREC also provides the opportunity for the portfolio’s commercial subscribers—all of which are school districts, nonprofits, and municipalities—to save on their power bills, without having to install their own rooftop arrays. These commercial subscribers receive solar credits for the energy generated by their share of the solar project, offering them a simpler way to utilize and support clean power.
“We’re glad to have begun our relationship with CE on a project that helps highlight the need for, and benefits of, local solar gardens, while also bringing value to our investors,” said Charles Wheeler, CEO of Greenbacker. “And we look forward to working together again in the future.”
“Community Energy has been developing community solar gardens in Colorado since 2013, and is pleased to have worked with the Greenbacker team on our largest portfolio of solar gardens in the state,” said Ben Griffin, Director of EPC and Asset Management for Community Energy, Inc. “These projects will provide very real economic and environmental benefits to the wide range of subscriber customers and communities that are participating.”
As of the completion of this community solar gardens project, Greenbacker owns approximately 1.04 GW of generating capacity (including assets that are to be constructed), comprising 773.5 MW of utility-scale and distributed solar facilities, 242.6 MW of wind facilities, 15.5 MW of battery storage, and 12.0 MW of biomass facilities.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results to differ materially from those anticipated at the time the forward-looking statements are made. Although Greenbacker believes the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that the expectations will be attained or that any deviation will not be material. Greenbacker undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement contained herein to conform to actual results or changes in its expectations.
