Aggreko is partnering with a farming consortium on a 500 MW community solar initiative. The company’s Energy Transition Solutions (ETS) division will become the strategic capital partner for the Farmers Powering Communities community solar initiative, providing capital and additional development expertise to the partnership and will also own and operate several community solar assets.
Formed last year, Aggreko ETS focuses on developing, owning and operating clean energy infrastructure in North America through long-term investment and partnerships from within Aggreko.
“Expanding access to community solar, which offers a cost-efficient way for people to use solar energy, aligns with our mission to accelerate the energy transition through clean energy infrastructure that delivers reliable, economic energy,” said Prashanth Prakash, Aggreko ETS’s chief commercial officer. “Working together, we are confident of our success in bringing the economic and environmental benefits of community solar to small-town America.”
Farmers Powering Communities is an ideal investment opportunity for Aggreko ETS, as the initiative brings together a development firm pioneering “social impact solar” in Edelen Renewables; America’s leading farmland preservation organization, American Farmland Trust (AFT); and the nation’s largest subscriber of community solar power, Arcadia.
“Bringing together those working to feed the planet with those working to save it in an initiative to build 500 MW, $1 billion portfolio of community solar is a massive, historic undertaking,” said Adam Edelen, founder and CEO of Edelen Renewables. “Doing so requires a strategic partner that not only shares our values but has the expertise and capital resources to help us make history in communities all over America.”
Through Farmers Powering Communities, Aggreko ETS will join Edelen Renewables, the American Farmland Trust and Arcadia in working together to realize the building out of 500 MW of community solar projects this decade.
“Farmers are on the frontlines of climate change, experiencing extreme weather events that impact their crops, livestock and livelihoods,” said John Piotti, AFT president and CEO. “We also know that farms can be part of the solution to the climate crisis. Farmland can draw carbon from the air to rebuild soil when farmed using climate-smart practices like cover crops and reduced tillage. We need to dramatically ramp up solar energy production while retaining our farms and ranches. That’s what this partnership is all about. Doing solar the right way and putting it in the right place is what we call Smart Solar.”
— Solar Builder magazine
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