Google and KKR to invest $400m in six US solar-power plants

Internet giant Google and private equity company KKR have signed a deal to invest about $400m in six solar-power plants in the US.
The plants, five in southern California and one in Arizona, are being built by Recurrent Energy, a unit of Sharp.

On the south of Sacramento, the companies agreed to invest in four solar farms in late 2011, which were developed and are still managed by Recurrent.

Development of the plants has been under way for years and they are expected to go on stream and begin power production in January 2014, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The plants have been designed to produce about 106MW of electricity combined, or enough to power about 17,000 homes in the country.

The US-based company Recurrent will continue as operator of the plants.

The company has also inked long-term power supply agreements with three buyers for the electricity they are expected to churn.

The joint investment by Google and KKR marks a combination of cash and debt and comes as the US solar market continues to grow.

Google’s equity stake is about $80m.

The Sacramento-area facilities that the companies invested in earlier began delivering power in May 2012 to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District.

KKR will use its infrastructure fund to fund its portion of the investment in the solar plants.

The company tapped the same pool of cash to make investments in a wind farm in France and solar power plants in Canada, Spain and the US.