Solar and wind giant SunEdison has acquired Solar Grid Storage (SGS), a Philadelphia start-up that packages lithium ion batteries and inverters with commercial solar-electric projects.
“What SunEdison is looking for with their investment in us is to jumpstart their strategic imperative to have storage co-located with their wind and solar projects,” SGS CEO Tom Leyden told Greentech. “It’s a matter of adding value for their customers and investors, and a matter of enabling greater penetration of renewables on the grid.”
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Acquisition by SunEdison will reduce SGS’ cost of capital by “maybe half,” said GTM Research analyst Ravi Manghani. “The cost of capital, in my opinion, is the biggest factor in this acquisition, at least from the Solar Grid Storage point of view,” he told St. John. The company had not announced any new projects in the last 18 months, “an indication not that they don’t have customers lined up, but that they couldn’t line up financing at the economic level that would work out.”
