Posted by Eric Savitz
First Solar (FSLR) announced in March that it will buy privately held OptiSolar’s project development business for $400 million in stock.
The company said the OptiSolar project pipeline includes a 550 MW AC solar development project under a power purchase agreement with Pacific Gas & Electric (PCG). First Solar said the pipeline also includes 1,300 MW AC in negotiation with Western region utilities for solar development projects, as well as “strategic land rights” for 136,000 acres – about 210 square miles – “with the potential to deploy up to 19 GW AC of utility-scale power projects.”
First Solar said the core development team which worked on the projects will join the company.
The company said the deal is expected to close in Q2.
However, today it was reported at the Los Angeles Times that The U.S. Department of the Interior’s inspector general has begun an investigation of the First Solar (FSLR) acquisition of Opti-Solar, including acquisition of Opti-Solar’s applications for strategic land rights to 136,000 acres of public land in San Bernardino, Riverside and Kern counties in California.
Actually, what First Solar originally announced was that the deal included the strategic land rights to that acreage. But according to the Times, official from the Bureau of Land Management say that Opti-Solar has only filed applications for the right to develop that land. Applications that had not yet been approved.
