What Apple's PPA With First Solar Could Mean For The Utility-Scale Solar Industry
February 12th, 2015 | posted on www.forbes.com
On Tuesday, First Solar announced that Apple had committed $848 million towards clean energy from the company’s California Flats Solar Project. Apple will receive electricity from 130 megawatts AC of the solar project under a 25-year power purchase agreement, in what will be the largest agreement to provide clean energy to a commercial end-user. First Solar is expected to begin construction of the 280 MW project in Monterey County, California sometime in mid-2015. The plant is expected to come online by the end of 2016.
To be sure, the contract is not particularly large for First Solar, given that it has signed PPAs of over twice that size with utility companies in the past. However, we believe that the deal could signal that large commercial customers will play an increasing role in the wholesale renewable energy and utility-scale solar markets in the United States, as utility companies have been slowly meeting their mandated renewable power requirements. While First Solar said that this deal is the first wholesale commercial and industrial PPA that it has executed, it notes that it has placed a strategic focus on directly providing large commercial and industrial customers with wholesale electricity through long-term agreements.
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