PE-backed Silicon Ranch plans 200MW solar portfolio

Silicon Ranch Corporation has agreed with a clean energy procurement organisation in Georgia to develop 200MW of solar projects after receiving a cash infusion from private equity firms earlier this year.

Green Power EMC, a division of Georgia’s Electric Membership Corporation, an association representing the south-eastern state’s power industry, has procured Silicon Ranch to develop a portfolio of solar projects at four locations by 2020. Green Power EMC, the state’s first renewable energy programme, sells power-purchase agreements on behalf of its 38 member corporations and buys the project’s energy and environmental credits.

Silicon Ranch said it would fully fund the projects, having received a total of $155 million from Partners Group and Greystone Infrastructure Fund in 2016 and earlier this year to expand its footprint in the US.

“Green Power EMC has developed a procurement strategy that allows its member co-ops to capture tremendous value,” Silicon Ranch chief executive Matt Kisber said. “By banding together, they are able to leverage economies of scale, resulting in an extremely low cost of energy for their members.”

Silicon Ranch is a large-scale solar developer based in Nashville, Tennessee. It develops-to-own all of its projects and has helped increase solar penetration in south-eastern US markets, building the first large-scale projects in Tennessee, Georgia, Arkansas and Mississippi, the company said in a statement. Its customers include utilities, military and defence facilities, small-to-large industrial facilities and commercial businesses.