Shares of solar energy technology provider First Solar (FSLR) are up $3.29, or 7%, at $49.40 after the company this morning said it found a buyer for its “Topaz Solar Farm” project in San Luis Obispo County in California, agreeing to sell the 550-megawatt panel installation to MidAmerican Energy Holdings.
MidAmerican, which claims to be the largest owner of wind power facilities among U.S. “rate-regulated utilities,” sees the addition of solar as a strategic bet, the company’s CEO Greg Abel said in a statement.
Some analysts are cheering the development as removing an “overhang” on First Solar shares, given that the $2 billion project broke ground last month, but had failed to meet a September 30th deadline for funding from the Department of Energy.
Hari Chandra Polavarapu of Auriga, who has a Buy rating on First Solar shares, writes today that the deal has broader implications, as it “highlights that high quality projects will get financing even in a dislocated macro environment that has hampered project financing, and will have a positive perception effect – on SunPower (SPWRA) and MEMC Electronic Materials (WFR) and others – that participate in downstream projects.”
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