Case Study: 50 MW Beltran Ranch (CA) Solar Project

The Beltran Ranch Project (the “Project”) is a 50 MW ground-mount solar farm in Stanislaus County, California, one of several projects under development in the United States by Scatec Solar NA, a wholly owned North American subsidiary of Scatec Solar AS.

Scatec, headquartered in Oslo, Norway, was formed in 2007 and is an established global developer of ground-mount and commercial rooftop PV solar energy solutions. At the time of this transaction, the Company had over 110 MW of projects currently in operation in Italy, Czech Republic, France, Germany and the United States and a total development pipeline of 4 GW worldwide. The Company hired NorthWinds Advisors to explore interest from selected institutions to purchase the Project. At the time of our engagement, the Project was in advanced stages of development, including site control obtained, conditional use permits secured and interconnection analysis completed, however no power off-take agreement was in place.

NorthWinds Advisors conducted a targeted marketing process whereby more than 100 investors were initially identified and advanced discussions were commenced with approximately 50 of those investors. Despite several challenges associated with the Project, including a high cost of land that had the potential to negatively impact the Project return profile and an intensely competitive market for power off-take, NorthWinds Advisors succeeded in securing term sheets from six investors.

After just six weeks in the market, the Company entered into an exclusivity period with one investor and executed an Asset Purchase Agreement with that party shortly thereafter.

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