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Glossary

Developer

Also: project developer, sponsor, owner

The company that finds the site, wins the permits, the grid connection and the financing, and hires the builder.

The developer takes a project from an option on land to a site ready to build: it signs the landowners, files in the interconnection queue, wins the county and state approvals, signs the power buyer and raises the money. It then hires an EPC contractor or a general contractor to build it.

Developers often file under a project company, an LLC named for the site, so the name on a permit is not always the parent company's. A developer may also sell a project before or after it is built; the owner of an operating plant is often not the company that developed it.

Groundtrace keeps the developer each record names, and has a page for every developer with its projects.

Guides

Who builds a utility-scale solar farm: developer, EPC and the tradesThe companies on a solar farm from site to switch-on, who hires whom, and when each one is chosen.

Related terms

EPC contractorThe company that designs, buys the equipment for and builds a power project under one contract: the builder, and the one who hires the trades.Interconnection queueThe grid operator's list of power projects asking to connect to the grid, usually the first public trace of a solar, wind or storage site.Power purchase agreementThe long-term contract to buy a project's power, which a developer usually needs before it can finance and build.
Every term Utility solar projects Data center projects

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