CIT Group's Power and Energy business served as coordinating lead arranger on a $84 million financing for a new 140-megawatt solar farm in Fort Bend County, Texas.

Cutlass Solar is a utility-scale project to be built about 40 miles southwest of Houston. Its sponsor, Advanced Power, is a leader in power generation with numerous projects in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

“The Cutlass Solar project is the first project of Advanced Power’s +1 GW solar development pipeline to reach financial close and will add significantly to the renewable generation capacity in the Greater Houston area,” said Jonathan Winslow, COO of Advanced Power Development. “We have worked successfully with CIT on multiple project financings, so we were confident in their capabilities when we called on them again to arrange financing for this important project.”

“Advanced Power is well known for its expertise in power generation, and we were pleased to collaborate with them once again to support their financing needs on this project,” said Mike Lorusso, managing director and group head for CIT’s Power and Energy business.

Overcoming market disruptions caused by winter storms, CIT arranged financing by creatively structuring a transaction that balanced the strengths of Advanced Power’s development expertise with market demand for merchant commodity risk.

CIT consistently ranks among the nation's top lenders for renewable energy projects, as reported by market research firm Inframation, an Acuris company. CIT also was recognized as Renewable Energy Lead Arranger of the Year in 2020 by Power Finance & Risk, a top energy industry trade publication.