Solar Power gets $32M for manufacturing, solar farm (Sacramento)

Solar Power Inc. has been allocated an additional $32 million in tax-exempt bonds that will enable the Roseville company to finance the renovation of a local manufacturing plant and a 16-megawatt solar farm in north Sacramento County.

The funds — approved last week by the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee — brings the company’s total recovery zone facility bond allocation to $56.7 million.

The company already had secured $24.7 million in recovery zone facility bonds from Sacramento County.

The county Board of Supervisors approved the company’s use of the bonding capacity in April.

Proceeds from the sale of the bonds will help Solar Power (OTCBB: SOPW) renovate a 100,000-square-foot building at McClellan Business Park for use as a solar-panel manufacturing plant and build a 70-acre solar farm in Rio Linda.

Piper Jaffray Cos. (NYSE: PJC), an international investment bank and securities firm, is the placement agent.

“This is a very significant milestone,” Solar Power Inc.’s chairman and chief executive officer Steve Kircher said in a statement. “These bonds will not only allow us to finance our growth at the manufacturing and business development level, they will help spawn job growth here in Sacramento and across the state as we continue on course to execute a number of large-scale solar developments.”

Read the full story in the Sacramento Business Journal.