Lightsource and BP have agreed to form a strategic partnership, bringing Lightsource’s solar development and management expertise together with BP’s global scale, relationships and trading capabilities to drive further growth across the world.
BP will acquire on completion a 43 percent equity share in Lightsource for a total consideration of $200 million, paid over three years. The great majority of this investment will fund Lightsource’s worldwide growth pipeline. The company will be renamed Lightsource BP and BP will have two seats on the board of directors.
Lightsource BP will target the growing demand for large-scale solar projects worldwide with a focus on grid-connected plants and corporate power purchase agreements (PPAs) signed with private companies. The company will continue to develop and deliver Lightsource’s 6GW growth pipeline, which is largely focused in the United States, India, Europe and the Middle East.
Global installed solar generating capacity more than tripled in the past four years and grew by more than 30 percent in 2016 alone, according to BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy. BP’s Energy Outlook analysis sees solar as likely to generate around a third of the world’s total renewable power and up to 10 percent of total global power by 2035.
BP exited the market in 2011, according to Bloomberg. The oil company said it’s taking a quieter approach to new energy technologies than it has in the past.
