30 March 2015

First Solar and SunPower file for IPO of partnership 8point3

First Solar Inc of Tempe, AZ, USA, which makes thin-film photovoltaic modules based on cadmium telluride (CdTe) as well as providing engineering, procurement & construction (EPC) services, and solar panel and system maker SunPower Corp of San Jose, CA, USA have announced that 8point3 Energy Partners LP, a limited partnership formed by the firms (as a joint 'YieldCo') to own and operate a portfolio of selected solar generation assets, has filed a registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an initial public offering of Class A shares.
 
The name 8point3 is derived from the average amount of time it takes light from the sun to reach the earth (8.3 minutes).

The number of shares to be offered and their IPO price have not yet been determined, but the aim is to raise $50m. 8point3 Energy Partners will apply to list the shares on the NASDAQ Global Market.

The preliminary prospectus for the IPO (available from Goldman, Sachs & Co and Citigroup, which are acting as lead book running managers) states that 8point3's initial portfolio is 432MW. Of this, 87% (377MW) consists of six utility-scale solar energy projects in the USA (four of which are operational and two of which are in late-stage construction) mostly in California (including First Solar's 150MW Solar Gen 2 project and SunPower's 108MW Quinto project). The remaining 13% (55MW) of the portfolio consists of 5900 rooftop installations (residential and industrial) from SunPower.

In addition, YieldCo has right-of-first-offer (ROFO) agreements for 1131MW of projects (most of which will be finished in 2015-2016). Of this, 82% of the projects are in the USA, 17%, in Chile, and 1% in Japan. Also, 87% are then are utility-scale, while the rest are commercial/residential.

See related items:

First Solar and SunPower to partner to form joint venture

Tags: First Solar Thin-film photovoltaic CdTe

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