Sol Systems put a ring on it

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If you’ve been working with someone steady for five years, getting deals done late on Fridays, hanging out to tune of $700 hundred million in projects, you’re doing good. If one day, your steady asked you to get a little more serious, to form a legal bond, to settle down and buy something, then maybe you’ve been a respectable partner.

Sol Systems and Nationwide Insurance, through recently formed joint venture Helios Infrastructure Fund, have made their first purchase: a 135 MW portfolio of solar power projects from Cypress Creek Renewables. The price paid and project details were not disclosed.

The portfolio is entirely located in North Carolina and all projects have signed power purchase agreements with Duke Energy.

According the U.S. Department of Energy’s Form EIA-860, Cypress Creek Renewables has 78 solar power projects located in North Carolina, totaling 581 MW-AC and more than 727 MW-DC. The large majority of these projects are 5 MW-AC size, with several above 50 MW-AC.

This portfolio did not include energy storage projects – twelve of which Cypress Creek deployed across North Carolina recently, and as shown in the below image of one of Cypress Creek’s power plant.

One of the most important aspects of the relationship is that an institutional investor has progressed through five years of vetting the solar power industry as a tax equity partner, has chosen to up their involvement and has now put forward $100 million to become a long term owner of solar power. Sol Systems and Nationwide, a Fortune 100 company, have been working together since 2012 and have partnered on $700 million worth of projects.

The goal of the fund is a few hundred megawatts in projects during 2018, and 600 MW by the end of 2019.

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