California and Texas projects help bolster SoftBank’s U.S. solar growth in the wake of stalled Saudi Arabia ambitions.
Large-scale renewables developer Intersect Power announced Thursday it will offload five solar projects it co-developed with SB Energy Global, an arm of SoftBank Group that already owns more than 5 gigawatts of wind and solar assets. The financial company subsidiary will take complete ownership of the projects, totaling 1.7 gigawatts in capacity.
The five projects are divided between two top solar markets, California and Texas, and are slated to start construction next year, with First Solar supplying modules. Austin Energy signed an offtake agreement for one of the projects, in West Texas, at 250 megawatts. The Lower Colorado River Authority will use some power from another of the Texas projects. One of the California projects will sell to Texas-based energy retailer Direct Energy Business, a subsidiary of Centrica.