PRINCETON, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NRG) today announced that the 290-megawatt Agua Caliente solar project has received an offer of a conditional commitment for a loan guarantee of up to $967 million from the U.S. Department of Energy. NRG’s acquisition of the project from First Solar was announced last month. The Yuma County, Arizona project, which began in 2010 and is expected to be complete by 2014, is expected to create up to 400 construction jobs.
“The public private partnership between NRG Solar, First Solar and the Department of Energy will be instrumental in adding an unprecedented amount of emission-free solar power to America’s energy portfolio,” said Tom Doyle, President of NRG Solar. “Together, we will create hundreds of jobs and reduce the nation’s fossil fuel dependence and carbon intensity. Since clean solar generation availability tends to align with the periods of highest electricity demand, projects like Agua Caliente add natural peaking capacity to the grid.”
“The DOE Loan Programs Office is important to enabling the deployment of utility-scale renewable energy resources such as Agua Caliente, supporting financing terms commensurate with the long-lived nature of a photovoltaic solar power plant,” said Frank De Rosa, First Solar Senior Vice President of Project Development, North America. “These cost advantages allow renewable energy sources to scale faster towards grid parity.”
About NRG and NRG Solar
NRG Solar LLC is a subsidiary of NRG Energy, Inc., a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 Index company that owns and operates one of the country’s largest and most diverse power generation portfolios. Headquartered in Princeton, NJ, the Company’s power plants provide nearly 26,000 megawatts of generation capacity—enough to supply nearly 21 million homes. NRG’s retail businesses, Reliant Energy and Green Mountain Energy Company, combined serve more than 1.8 million residential, business, commercial and industrial customers. With investments in solar, wind and nuclear power, as well as electric vehicle infrastructure, NRG is working to help America transition to a clean energy economy. More information is available at www.nrgenergy.com.
Safe Harbor Disclosure
This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions and include NRG’s expectations regarding the Agua Caliente Solar Project and forward-looking statements typically can be identified by the use of words such as “will,” “expect,” “believe,” and similar terms. Although NRG believes that its expectations are reasonable, it can give no assurance that these expectations will prove to have been correct, and actual results may vary materially. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated above include, among others, general economic conditions, hazards customary in the power industry, weather conditions, competition in wholesale power markets, the volatility of energy and fuel prices, failure of customers to perform under contracts, changes in the wholesale power markets, changes in government regulation of markets and of environmental emissions, unanticipated outages at our generation facilities, the failure to receive a loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy or the inability to access other financing arrangements, the inability to implement value enhancing improvements to plant operations and companywide processes, our ability to create and maintain successful partnering relationships.
NRG undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The foregoing review of factors that could cause NRG’s actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in the forward-looking statements included in this news release should be considered in connection with information regarding risks and uncertainties that may affect NRG’s future results included in NRG’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov.