Ørsted acquires 227 MW solar project in USA

Ørsted has acquired Longroad Energy's 227 MWac under construction Muscle Shoals solar project located in Colbert County, Alabama, in the USA. Concurrent to the acquisition, Ørsted enters into a tax equity funding commitment with Wells Fargo.

The project will be Ørsted's second solar project in the US, following the decision in November 2019 to commence construction of the Permian Energy Center solar plus storage project in Texas. Following the acquisition of Muscle Shoals, Ørsted will have two solar projects totaling 647 MWac of generation capacity under construction across the US along with 40 MWac of storage capacity.

Muscle Shoals is expected to come online in the third quarter of 2021. The modules for the project will be supplied by First Solar.

The acquisition of the project is fully contracted under a long-term power purchase agreement with the Tennessee Value Authority (TVA).

Vishal Kapadia, Senior Vice President & CFO Onshore, said: "The acquisition of Muscle Shoals continues the expansion of our solar portfolio and further diversifies the geographic footprint of our asset base by establishing a foothold in the rapidly growing Southeast solar market. Once complete, Muscle Shoals will deliver high-quality contracted revenues that will provide Ørsted an attractive incremental source of stable earnings."