Google & KKR Partner to Acquire Portfolio of Solar PV Projects in California from Recurrent Energy

Google

, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts

, and Recurrent Energy today announced an investment in a portfolio of solar photovoltaic facilities serving the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. The portfolio of projects is financed with a combination of debt and equity, which includes a significant equity investment from Google in addition to equity from SunTap Energy RE LLC, a new venture formed today by KKR to invest in solar projects in the U.S. “The investment is a clear demonstration of solar's ability to attract private capital from well-established investors like Google and KKR,” said Arno Harris, CEO of Recurrent Energy. “This transaction provides an example of the direction solar is headed as a viable, mainstream part of our energy economy.” The four solar PV facilities included in the transaction will provide 88 MW of power to SMUD and were the first to be awarded as part of the utility's feed-in tariff program introduced in January 2010. Construction on three of the Sacramento, CA, area projects will be complete early in 2012, with the fourth coming online later in the year. The projects are expected to generate nearly 160,000,000 kWh in their first year of operation, which is roughly equivalent to offsetting the electricity consumption of more than 13,000 average U.S. homes. Google's investment in these projects brings its total invested to more than $915 million in renewable energy projects. The company has invested in a wide range of technologies, from transmission to the world's largest wind and solar power tower projects. This represents Google's first investment in the U.S. in utility scale solar PV.