About Us

Leading Industry Standards For Over A Decade

Renewable Energy International LLC (“REI”) was founded in December 2006 by Jeff Potter. Originally, the company was focused on renewable energy projects in Europe, predominantly wind and solar. The wind portfolio grew rapidly across five countries, totaling over 1,500 MWs within two years. After ten years of successful development, political changes forced the company to re-position itself and enter the US solar market in 2016.

REI’s current business model is aimed at the development and construction of a large portfolio of ground-mounted utility scale solar PV projects in the US Northeast and Southeast. The Company already has a large portfolio of sites in Massachusetts and Florida, although the company only started actual operations in January 2017.

REI plans to create a geographically diversified portfolio in the US. The parameters used to select the states for development are total build-out, capacity factor, regulatory support and power pricing. Massachusetts was the first state chosen, not because of a high capacity factor, but because of its build-out rate, power prices and very strong support system put in place by its Democratic legislature and Republican governor. For each state, individual sites will be selected by their proximity to an interconnection option and potential size in MWs, the latter to benefit from economies of scale.

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A new state will be added to the portfolio every six months, aiming to identify and gain land control within the first couple of months of development. Where appropriate, a pre-application for interconnection will be submitted to the utility, and the permitting process with the local council will start. Projects can complete the entire process from greenfield to commissioning within two years, subject to available grid capacity.

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Project Development

Project development begins with the search for parcels of land in close proximity to interconnection options, to ensure that grid costs are kept low. A second key factor in site selection is the scoping of land for wetlands, conservation restrictions and other environmental constraints. A major key to success is the speed and efficiency of development, delivering quality projects in as short a time as possible. We rely on our own internal resources to secure sites, manage interconnections and acquire the necessary permits to reach a ready-to-build stage however, at the same time third party specialist firms also provide expertise for the more specialist areas of permitting and planning construction under EPC contracts.

Massachusetts

In Florida, over 50 prospective sites (land control not yet established) and projects (with land control) have been identified. Here, the focus is on Northern and Central Florida, and typically we will look to develop sites up to 75 MW, requiring more than 500 acres. However, we are also interested in smaller sites of 150 acres or more.

Florida

In Massachusetts, we have developed a number of projects that have been progressing over the course of 2017. We have submitted applications for interconnection and plan to accelerate our activities there shortly and submit more interconnection applications to the larger utilities, Eversource and National Grid. At the same time, we will push forward with the permitting process on qualified projects.