The 550MW development project is under a power purchase agreement with utility Pacific Gas and Electric.

California’s OptiSolar has been in negotiation with various western US utilities regarding its 1,300MW project pipeline, which will now be taken up by First Solar. The pipeline will create as many as 400 green collar jobs in California.

In addition, the deal comes with strategic land rights worth approximately 210 sq miles, which have the potential to deploy another 19,000MW of utility-scale solar projects, the company says.

Arizona’s First Solar says it will construct the acquired solar power plants still in the pipeline over the next several years before selling them to a combination of regulated utilities, diversified energy companies and other independent power producers.

The core team responsible for assembling OptiSolar’s project pipeline will also join the First Solar development team.

First Solar chief executive Mike Ahearn says: "OptiSolar has created an impressive and well-designed development pipeline. Adding these resources, along with their development team, to First Solar is our next logical step to delivering multi-GW of solar power to U.S. utilities over the next several years.”