Norwegian Hydropower developer Statkraft is planning to spend $154 million to buy UK solar developer Solarcentury. Statkraft already has some solar assets, and an improving pipeline but these are dwarfed by Solarcentury’s 1.2 GW operational assets and 6 GW pipeline, spread across Chile and Europe. Statkraft’s own solar pipeline was heading towards just 2 GW by 2025 prior to the acquisition. There are two clear motives for such a deal. The first has been publicly expressed by Statkraft on numerous occasions – it’s generational assets are almost entirely hydro based (53.4 GWh out of 61.1 GWh total), currently not growing rapidly because of the up-front capex of hydro, and the length of time those projects take to develop. It needs…