Nautilus Solar in talks to acquire another 20 MW of solar projects in Maine

Nautilus Solar is growing exponentially in Maine—with more than 140 MW of projects acquired in less than two years, and several more prospective deals currently in negotiations, said Business Development Director Daniela Pangallo in an interview with NPM.

Having recently acquired a community solar portfolio from National Renewable Solutions (NRS) in state, Pangallo confirmed they are also currently in different stages of negotiations with a few other developers that would add another 20 MW of projects to their portfolio .

“We are still looking at deals in Maine,” she said. “This is one of our key markets and we are committed to it in the long term.”

While the company owns and operates solar farms in 10 different states, Pangallo focuses much of her attention on purchasing projects in Maine. She followed legislation in the state closely for years, so as laws surrounding community solar loosened, she was prepared.

“As soon as programs were approved, I was ready and involved in lots of transactions,” she said.

Legislation that paved the way included LD 1711, an act to promote solar energy projects and distributed generation resources in the state, which was approved in 2019, and LD 936, an act to amend state laws relating to net energy billing and procurement of distributed generation, which was approved in 2021. The latter allowed the Maine Net Energy Billing Commercial program (NEB) to come to life, which enables customers to receive renewable energy benefits and monetary bill-credits at a prescribed rate.

The NEB program was utilized in their most recent acquisition of the NRS portfolio. The portfolio included two projects in Presque Isle, Aroostook County, according to the press release. The biggest challenge with the transaction was weather related, as construction could not happen during some winter months.

“We had to act fast because the project needed to start,” Pangallo said, adding that the parties were able to come to an agreement in about two months last summer.

“We both took a bit more risk within the transaction just to be sure that the project met the deadline,” she said.

In addition to Maine, they are monitoring all early-stage markets, including Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

“We’ve been nurturing relationships and trying to help developers in every state in the U.S.,” she said. “Even states with a small chance of having a community solar program.”

They want to be a resource and provide guidance to developers, big and small, and they're always open to new relationships.

“Something we pride ourselves in, is that we can recognize good developers when we meet them,” she said. “We’re very open to taking the risk on developers that do not have strong track records yet. I think it’s a competitive advantage that we have... we love to be the first buyer of their projects.”

Another competitive advantage is their focus on projects that serve low-to-moderate (LMI) income residents, which are now being incentivized thanks to the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), according to Pangallo.

“We’re well positioned to be able to take advantage of those incentives,” she said.

The IRA has also created a lot of optimism in the market, she added, specifically in terms of the rapidly increasing construction costs over the last few years.

“Hopefully this will allow us to continue growing and counterbalance the challenges that we’re having on the supply chain and the cost increases for construction—I'm optimistic that it will,” she said.

*This story was originally published exclusively for NPM subscribers last month.


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