By Lee Hyo-sik
The Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) has acquired a solar power plant in the United States, its first acquisition in the field of renewable energy in North America.
Using the deal as a springboard, the state-run utility plans to acquire more wind, solar and other renewable energy businesses in the United States and elsewhere to become a global leader in the clean energy industry.
KEPCO said Monday that it paid $34 million on April 14 to complete the acquisition of Cogentrix Energy’s Alamosa Solar Generating Plant in Colorado. KEPCO’s U.S. unit holds a 50.1 percent stake in the 30-megawatt Alamosa solar plant, which sits on 225 acres of land. An investment fund, jointly set up by KEPCO and the National Pension Fund, has the remaining 49.9 percent.
KEPCO CEO Cho Hwan-eik left the country Monday for the U.S. to visit the Alamosa solar plant and meet with company employees. The facility is a 30-megawatt concentrator photovoltaic power station, operating 7,700 panels.
Each panel contains 7,560 Fresnel lenses to concentrate sunlight 500 times greater than it is naturally and multi-junction solar cells to allow greater efficiency than other photovoltaic power plants.
The output is sold to Public Service of Colorado under a long term power purchase agreement.
“It is the first time for us to take over a renewable energy company in the world’s largest economy,” a KEPCO official said. “We had tried many times to acquire U.S. energy companies but weren’t able to close the deals, due mainly to regulatory risks. KEPCO will continue to look for additional opportunities to expand its presence in the U.S. and neighboring countries.”
In Asia, the utility firm has acquired several renewable energy facilities, such as a solar power plant in Japan and a wind farm in China, but failed to do anything like this in the U.S. until now.
After signing a sales contract with Cogentrix Solar Holdings last August, KEPCO had initially planned to operate the plant by October. But it took longer than expected for the company to receive approval from the U.S. government. It received the green light last December.