EDF Reaches Financial Close on 394 MW Utah Solar 1 Project

EDF power solutions North America reached financial close on its Utah Solar 1 project on September 18, 2026, clearing the way for full construction of a 394 MWdc (300 MWac) photovoltaic plant in Millard County, Utah. The project is backed by a 30-year power purchase agreement with the Southern California Public Power Authority, which will deliver the output to customers of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

Once online, EDF said Utah Solar 1 is expected to generate approximately 766,000 megawatt-hours of electricity a year, enough to displace a meaningful share of LADWP’s remaining fossil generation as the municipal utility works toward its own carbon-free electricity commitments. Power delivery is expected to begin in mid-2027, and the project is moving directly into full construction now that financing is locked in.

A Multi-Bank Financing Package

The debt financing was arranged by a syndicate of five banks: Crédit Agricole CIB, MUFG Bank, National Bank of Canada, Societe Generale and Standard Chartered Bank. MUFG served as administrative agent, while Crédit Agricole CIB acted as initial coordinating lead arranger; all five banks are listed as coordinating lead arrangers and initial lenders. The financing package also includes a tax credit bridge facility, with Crédit Agricole CIB named as the sole buyer of the project’s federal production tax credits — a financing structure that has become increasingly common for US solar developers monetizing tax credits directly rather than through traditional tax-equity partnerships.

Revenue for Utah’s Millard County

Beyond its role supplying California, EDF said the project is projected to generate more than $40 million in local tax revenue for Millard County and $27 million in lease revenue for the Utah Trust Lands Administration over its life, since the site sits on state trust land. Utah has become an increasingly active state for utility-scale solar despite generating most of its own power from coal and gas, in part because developers can build large, low-cost projects on relatively cheap land and export the power to higher-priced markets in California and the desert Southwest via existing transmission corridors.

Part of a Broader Buildout Pattern

SCPPA, a joint powers authority representing eleven municipal utilities including LADWP, has increasingly turned to out-of-state solar and wind procurement to help its members meet California’s decarbonization targets, since in-state land and interconnection queues have become more constrained. EDF power solutions has developed several similar out-of-state, long-term PPA-backed projects for California municipal utility customers in recent years, a pattern likely to continue as SCPPA members work toward fully carbon-free electricity supplies over the next decade.

Sources

• PV Tech, “EDF reaches financial close on 394MW solar PV plant in Utah”, September 2026 — capacity figures, PPA structure, generation estimate
• REGlobal, “EDF reaches financial close on 394 MW Utah Solar 1 project”, September 21, 2026 — financing timeline
• Power Technology, “EDF secures financing for Utah Solar 1 project” — lender syndicate details, tax credit bridge facility structure
• SolarQuarter, “EDF Achieves Financial Close for Utah Solar 1 Project”, September 21, 2026 — Millard County and Utah Trust Lands revenue estimates

Illustrative image. Photo: Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons — source