Solar Consolidation: First Solar to Buy Up NextLight

By Katie Fehrenbacher Apr. 28, 2010, 8:27am PT 1 Comment

First Solar’s domination of utility-scale solar projects in the U.S. continues: This morning the thin film solar darling announced that it plans to acquire NextLight, which owns 1,100 MW worth of solar projects in the Southwest, for $285 million.

The acquisition will bring First Solar’s total utility-scale solar projects under contract to 2,200 MW, plus an additional 530 MW of projects. Last year First Solar acquired a 550 MW solar project from OptiSolar valued at $400 million, and in late 2007 bought up Ted Turner’s solar company Turner Renewable Energy, for $34.3 million. Check out First Solar’s list of projects in the U.S. now including the projects it has acquired with NextLight:

Utility Size Location
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power 55 MW Los Angeles, CA
Pacific Gas & Electric 550 MW Carrizo Plain, northwest of California Valley, CA
Pacific Gas & Electric 300 MW Desert Center, CA
PNM 22 MW Five sites in PNM’s New Mexico service territory
Sempra Generation, PG&E 58 MW El Dorado, NV
Southern California Edison 550 MW Desert Center, CA, and San Bernardino County, CA
Southern California Edison Around 1-2 MW per rooftop The first two rooftops in SCE’s solar rooftop project, in Fontana, CA and Chino, CA
Southern California Edison 7.5-21 MW Blythe, CA
Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association 30 MW Colfax County, NM
Tucson Electric Power 500 kW Tucson, AZ
Boulder City Solar 150 MW Boulder City, NV
Creekside Solar 40 MW CA
Silver State Solar Power North 40 MW NV
Silver State Solar Power South 250 MW NV
Lost Hills 32 MW CA
AV Solar Ranch One 230 MW CA
Agua Caliente Solar 290 MW AZ
Hart 100 MW CO
Valencia 30 MW NM

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