First Solar (NASQAQ: FSLR) on Monday said it will acquire the solar power project pipeline of rival OptiSolar for $400 million in stock.
The transaction is expected to be completed in 2Q09.
The acquisition includes 550 megawatt (MW) project under a power purchase agreement with California utility PG&E (NYSE: PCG), as well as projects representing 1,300 MW of power that are in negotiation with other Western region utilities.
The acquisition also included strategic land rights of approximately 136,000 acres with the potential to deploy up to 19 gigawatts (GW) of utility-scale solar power projects, according to a release.
In addition, the core development team responsible for assembling and executing on the solar project pipeline will join the First Solar development team.
First Solar expects to construct solar power plants developed under the acquired solar power project pipeline over the next several years and sell them to a combination of regulated utilities, diversified energy companies and other independent power producers. Project development is planned to begin as early as 2010.
"OptiSolar has created an impressive and well-designed development pipeline. Adding these resources, along with their development team, to First Solar is our next logical step to delivering multi-GW of solar power to U.S. utilities over the next several years," said Mike Ahearn, First Solar CEO. "As First Solar continues to drive down its manufacturing and EPC costs, OptiSolar’s project pipeline and the ability of our team to continually expand our existing pipeline, will enable us to bring solar energy on-line quickly and further reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the grid."
First Solar last week announced increased profit and revenue for 2008, and said it lowered the production cost for its solar panels to below $1 per watt.
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