Solar Power chases $147M (Sacramento)

Solar Power Inc. hopes to tap into more federal stimulus money to help finance two utility-scale solar farms in Sacramento County that would produce enough electricity to power more than 10,000 homes.

Energy produced by the farms — one 70-acre solar farm in Rio Linda and a second farm more than three times that size to be sited elsewhere in the county — would be sold to a local utility.

Solar Power (OTCBB: SOPW) is seeking $147 million in either tax-exempt or tax-credit bonds, or some combination of both, to help pay for the projects.

The company already has secured $24.7 million in recovery zone facility bonds from Sacramento County. The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved the company’s use of the bonding capacity.

Proceeds from the sale of the $24.7 million in bonds will help the company renovate a 100,000-square-foot building at McClellan Business Park for use as a solar-panel manufacturing operation. The vacant building once was used by the U.S. Air Force for light manufacturing, warehouse and office space.

Read the full story in the Sacramento Business Journal.