Sunlight Energy Investments, a subsidiary of Genie Energy, a retail and renewable energy solutions firm, announced that it had acquired a portfolio of 12 operating solar arrays totaling 9.4 MWdc from the project developer.
The arrays supply power to on-site school facilities in Ohio and Michigan, and their production is covered under direct, long-term, fixed-price solar power purchase agreements. The acquisition would also give Sunlight Energy the right of first refusal on the developer’s future projects.
Nir Ashpiz, CEO of Sunlight Energy, commented, “The long-term, stable cash flows generated by this particular portfolio of solar generation projects are fairly representative of the attractive development and acquisition opportunities available across the solar generation industry. We look forward to putting more capital to work on both development projects and generating assets in the coming months.”
Genie’s Renewables division is a vertically integrated commercial, community, and utility-scale solar energy solutions provider.
“We continue to leverage Genie’s strong balance sheet and low cost of capital to build our Genie Renewables business,” said Michael Stein, CEO of Genie Energy. “This acquisition – through our Sunlight Energy investment vehicle – is our first transaction involving operating solar assets and complements our growing pipeline of solar generation projects in various stages of development. We expect that this acquisition will be immediately accretive to our bottom line.”
According to Mercom’s 9M and Q3 2023 Solar Funding and M&A Report, in the first nine months (9M) of 2023, there were 166 project acquisitions for 31.6 GW compared to 207 projects for 52.1 GW in 9M 2022.
Foresight Solar, a sustainability-focused fund investing in solar and battery storage assets, sold a 50% stake in Spain’s 99 MW Lorca solar portfolio. The Lorca subsidy-free solar portfolio consists of Las Salinas (30 MW), Los Llanos (49 MW), and Los Picos (20 MW) projects.
