Silver Ridge Power, LLC, formerly known as AES Solar, and Google Inc. announced on October 10th that Google became a partner and will invest approximately $103 million in Silver Ridge Power’s 265.7 MW Mount Signal Solar project. The project, also known as Imperial Valley Solar 1, is a utility-scale solar photovoltaic (“PV”) generating plant under construction in Imperial County, California. Mount Signal Solar is expected to be fully operational in 2014 and will sell its output to the San Diego Gas & Electric Company under a long-term power purchase agreement. Google’s obligation to provide a significant portion of the committed funds is subject to customary conditions precedent, including the commencement of operations at Mount Signal Solar.
Silver Ridge Power’s global portfolio now totals approximately 522 MW in operation or construction in seven countries, making Silver Ridge Power one of the global owners and operators of utility-scale, solar PV power plants. Note that references to MW are in direct current (“DC”).
This is Google’s thirteenth renewable energy investment. In total, the company has committed over $1 billion to projects that will enable the generation of more than 2GW of electricity, enough to power over 500,000 homes.
“Our investment in Mount Signal Solar is a reflection of Google’s ongoing commitment to the renewable energy industry and our strong belief that investing in renewable energy makes business sense,” said Kojo Ako-Asare, Google’s Head of Corporate Finance. “This is the first time Silver Ridge Power has partnered with a technology company; we appreciate their innovative approach and we hope to see more such partnerships in the future.”
“We are pleased to have a world-class partner in Google on our flagship Mount Signal Solar project. We are on schedule to complete the project in 2014 and when completed it will be one of the largest single-axis tracker PV plants in the world,” said Robert Hemphill, CEO of Silver Ridge Power. “Mount Signal Solar represents over half of Silver Ridge Power’s total installed capacity and will provide clean, renewable electricity to over 80,000 homes in California.”