Cleanleaf Energy O&M portfolio grows to 1.8 GW

by , May 21, 2024

 ANNE FISCHER

Cleanleaf Energy, formerly Borrego O&M, announced the signing of agreements to provide operations and maintenance (O&M) services to new utility-scale projects totaling 350 MW in Georgia and Pennsylvania.

The portfolio consists of five total projects–four in Georgia and one in Pennsylvania, all of which are owned by Heelstone Renewable Energy.

Heelstone was launched in 2012 initially with projects in North Carolina. By 2016 the company had expanded its development into California and in 2019 received an investment from Ares Infrastructure and Power, to help develop its utility-scale solar projects across the U.S. In January of 2024, Heelstone was acquired by Qualitas Energy, at which time the developer reportedly had a portfolio of 20 GW of solar and storage assets.

“We did our homework, and Cleanleaf stood out with the most advanced and competitive services,” said a representative from the Heelstone Renewable Energy leadership team.

The agreements for the O&M of these projects are set for five years, with automatic renewals thereafter. All projects are scheduled to go live within the next 30 to 90 days, Cleanleaf told pv magazine USA.

“This achievement underscores our capabilities and readiness to handle more utility-scale projects and the synergies of our large DG footprint in 27 states combined with a growing utility-scale portfolio creates an exciting future for effective, high performing O&M services to the solar industry,” said Cleanleaf’s CEO, Mikael Backman.

With the addition of 350 MW in projects, Cleanleaf’s O&M portfolio now encompass a total of 1.8 GW. These new projects will be supported by Cleanleaf’s Realtime Operations Center in Dallas.

Cleanleaf was spun out of Borrego in 2022. Borrego, which was formed in 2002, began offering O&M services about ten years ago and grew to provide services for commercial and industrial as well as utility-scale solar.

Read article on PV Magazine.

Borrego’s Web-Based O&M Customer Portal Provides Real-Time Actionable Insights into Solar Project Operations

by , September 20, 2022

September 20, 2022 –Borrego, a leading EPC and O&M provider for large-scale solar and energy storage projects throughout the United States, has launched a new O&M customer portal, a web-based application that gives operations and maintenance customers immediately actionable insights into project data, cases, reports and service contracts in one central location. The customer portal is available to all Borrego O&M customers, with access and training provided during the project onboarding process.

By providing Borrego O&M customers with instant visibility into day-to-day service status across all of their projects, the customer portal allows them to spend less time on project administration and more time on driving revenue. The portal features project data, in-depth reporting, service contracts, historical service details, and information on cases and work orders — including whether Borrego is waiting for customer permission to move forward with work. This centralized access to relevant real-time information improves project transparency, operational efficiency and decision-making confidence, helping asset owners power business growth.

“Having access to project-level O&M service details and status 24/7 will enable asset owners to be more productive and ensure high availability, particularly in the case of portfolio customers managing dozens or even hundreds of projects,” said Greg Shambo, VP of sales and business development, O&M, for Borrego. “Customers trust Borrego O&M to provide real-time transparency and communication, and the customer portal takes that relationship to another level.”

The portal has received positive early user feedback during the beta phase, with key call-outs including the advantage of a single-source platform in gaining real-time visibility into service status, which in turn modernizes and tightens the turnaround of productive decisions. Additionally, early users of the Borrego O&M customer portal have reported significant improvement in operational efficiencies and in streamlining administrative processes.

Borrego developed the customer portal in-house in response to feedback from its O&M customers. Featuring capabilities that go beyond platforms built on out-of-the-box systems, the portal’s open API platform works with existing customer systems. Data from Salesforce.com and other software services can be integrated into a single place and customers can add portal data into other programs. The system architecture enables further expansion of the portal with rapid development cycles, and new features and improvements are already being planned for future updates.

Borrego Signs Operations and Maintenance Contracts for Two 50-MW Utility-Scale Solar Projects in Ohio

by , August 09, 2022

SAN DIEGO – Aug. 9, 2022 – Borrego, a leading EPC and O&M provider for large-scale solar and energy storage projects throughout the United States, has signed two solar O&M contracts with a leading renewable energy developer and operator for a pair of 50 MWac projects under construction in Ohio. The deals are Borrego’s first utility-scale operations and maintenance contracts, and the two projects’ combined total of 100 MWac is among some of the largest customer portfolios the team is managing.

Under the terms of the contracts, Borrego will provide preventative and corrective maintenance to the two projects, with an unlimited amount of vegetation maintenance as well as aerial thermal inspection services. Borrego has also included a 98% availability guarantee for five years in conjunction with these services.

As part of Borrego O&M’s expansion into utility-scale projects, the company upgraded its Operations Center to be North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) compliant and will be able to register as a NERC Critical Infrastructure Protection Generator Operator (CIP-GOP). In addition, Borrego O&M continues to bolster its team with a dedicated staff working on its growing utility-scale sector portfolio.

“We are very excited to have the opportunity to operate and maintain these utility-scale projects in Ohio. Borrego’s selection by one of the largest renewable IPPs in the world is a testament to the investments we have made in our O&M utility scale team and systems,” said Mike Hall, chief executive officer of Borrego. “The deals also reflect the recognition by our partners of the benefits of thinking strategically about O&M early in the project life cycle.”

The two Ohio projects are scheduled to reach their commercial operation dates in 2023, at which point Borrego O&M will begin operating the plants.

Borrego is a leader in third-party O&M services for distributed generation and utility-scale solar plants. The team currently manages the performance of over 1.6 GW and 1,050 solar operating assets, the majority of which were built by other EPCs.

About Borrego

Borrego, a leading EPC and O&M provider, accelerates the delivery and maintenance of large commercial, community solar, and utility-scale solar and energy storage projects in the U.S. Borrego offers a broad range of renewable energy services and has a track record of superior performance in the hundreds of large solar and energy storage projects it has designed, built, and maintains throughout the U.S. Established in 1980, it has regional offices in California, Massachusetts, and New York with a nationwide footprint. Borrego creates value by helping partners make better decisions at critical points in every project’s life. Its team brings deep technical expertise to its mission of solving the world’s energy problems.