US Solar Fund Acquires and Finances 128 MW Solar Plant in Utah

US Solar Fund has closed the acquisition and completed the financing of the 128 MW Milford Solar Project under development in Utah.

Newly formed, US Solar Fund (USF) has recently announced that it has closed the acquisition and financing of 100 percent of the cash equity interests in the 128 MW Milford Solar Project under development in Utah.

Construction on the project is expected to begin immediately with full commercial operations expected before the end of 2020. The Company first announced the acquisition on July 23, 2019, and has now successfully closed the financing for the project.

The Project is in Beaver County, approximately six miles north of Milford, Utah. Milford is expected to be operational in late 2020 and, will sell 100 percent of the power and renewable energy credits generated at a fixed price for 25 years to PacifiCorp, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy. PacifiCorp has further contracted to sell all the renewable attributes associated with the Project to a retail customer. 

USF will acquire Milford from developer Longroad Energy Partners. The Project will be constructed on a fixed-time and fixed-cost basis by McCarthy Building Companies, one of the largest construction companies in the US with over 2.8GW of solar and energy storage projects designed, constructed or completed since 2013. The Project will use First Solar’s high-performance Series 6 solar panels and First Solar Energy Services is expected to provide operations and maintenance services under a separate long-term contract.

Once operational, the Project will generate over 277,500 megawatt-hours of electricity annually. This volume of electricity is equivalent to displacing approximately 235,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions, powering 31,000 homes, or removing 51,000 cars from the road, every year.

The company will fund the acquisition and construction of Milford with initial equity of approximately USD 30 million alongside non-recourse construction debt provided by Zions Bancorporation and KeyBank as Joint Lead Arrangers.

Gillian Nott, Chairman of the UK-based USF said, “We are delighted to have reached financial close on our first high-quality solar asset. The 25-year PPA with PacifiCorp will provide stable long-term infrastructure cash flows to our investors, something that is particularly pleasing in this low-interest rate environment. The Board looks forward to the Investment Manager’s continued pace in deploying our IPO proceeds.”