Alterra Power’s Spartan Solar Project Begins Commercial Operations

Alterra will manage the project, which sells 100 percent of its power under a 25-year agreement with the Board of Trustees of Michigan State University.

Alterra Power Corp. and Inovateus Solar LLC are pleased to announce the 11 MW Spartan solar project commenced full commercial operations. The Spartan project is located at the Michigan State University campus in East Lansing, Michigan, covering over 4,500 parking spaces.

Separately, the project’s $19.8 million construction loan was retired on December 22 via a $10.2 million 10-year term loan and a $9.7 million tax equity investment, both provided by 1st Source Bank, a subsidiary of 1st Source Corporation. Under an agreement with Inovateus, Alterra now holds a 100 percent sponsor equity interest in the project.

Alterra will manage the project, which sells 100 percent of its power under a 25-year agreement with the Board of Trustees of Michigan State University. Inovateus managed the construction of the project and will also provide operation and maintenance services under a long-term contract.

“We’re pleased to complete this project within 2017 – with tremendous thanks to our partners at Michigan State University, 1st Source and Inovateus. We’re looking forward to further growth of our US solar business and many successful years delivering clean power to MSU,” Jon Schintler, VP of Project Finance & Development at Alterra, said.

Alterra operates nine power plants with 825MW of hydro, wind, geothermal and solar generation capacity in Canada, the US and Iceland.

Alterra owns a 375 MW share of this capacity, generating over 1,500 GWh of clean power annually.