HASI Invests $144M in Land for Solar Projects

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor

Solar Pannels

Annapolis, Md.—Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure Capital Inc. has acquired, for $144 million, more than 4,000 acres of land that’s leased under long-term contracts to more than 20 individual solar projects with investment grade off-takers (customers that have contracted to buy power).

The projects have an aggregate capacity exceeding 690 megawatts of direct current.

Including this transaction, HASI  has invested about $375 million in real estate and owns more than 20,000 acres of land leased under long-term agreements to over 45 renewable-energy projects and has the rights to payments from land leases for more than 50 additional projects. The projects are located in over 15 states.

HASI is a leading investor in sustainable infrastructure, including energy efficiency and renewable energy. The company did not reply to Commercial Property Executive’s request for additional information.

The third quarter of 2016 was the largest quarter ever for the U.S. solar industry, according to a report from the Solar Energy Industries Association. Driven primarily by utility photovoltaic, the nation installed 4,143 megawatts direct current of solar PV in the third quarter, marking increases of 99 percent over the previous three-month period and 191 percent over the third quarter of 2015.

By the end of the third quarter of 2016, the U.S. solar PV market had already surpassed its record total from all of 2015, driven by 14 states that each installed more than 100 MW DC.

In the first three quarters, solar accounted for 39 percent of all new electric generating capacity brought online in this country, second only to natural gas as the largest source of new capacity.

On average, one megawatt of new solar PV capacity came online every 32 minutes in the third quarter, again according to the SEIA.