Bank of America announced an agreement this week with ProLogis, and NRG Energy and the US DOE’s Loan Program Office to finance the deployment of up to $2.6 billion of commercial and industrial rooftop solar installations, all across the country.
This will be the largest distributed solar deal in history, which will create the equivalent of over 10,000 job-years, while providing 733MW of distributed solar energy, which is enough to power 100,000 homes across 28 states.
Bank of America is the sole financial lender in the agreement, which is backed by a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy’s Financial Institutions Partnership Program.
All the funds will be raised from private investors over the next four years. Prologis will act as the developer and site host and NRG Energy will be the lead investor for the first phase of the project. This landmark deal adds to a growing list of recent commitments by BOA Merrill including a newly established goal by the company to reduce its global green house gas emissions 15 percent by 2015, and the launch of a $55 million energy efficiency finance program to encourage energy efficiency in older buildings in key markets across the U.S.
The first phase of the so-called AMP project, which will provide 15MW in Southern California, is ready to begin immediately.
Prologis will provide site access to rooftops, mostly on warehouses and will also act as developer, construction manager and program sponsor, in addition to being an equity investor. This project is the most recent example of the company’s long-standing and industry-leading commitment to renewable energy.
“As one of the world’s largest owners of distribution facilities and an active solar industry participant, we’re pleased to be a partner in a project of this magnitude,” said Drew Torbin, vice president of Prologis Renewable Energy. “This project will add significant scale to the distributed solar market and provides economic and environmental benefit to our shareholders and customers.”