Rockville-based Standard Solar acquired by Canadian energy company

Rockville’s Standard Solar has been acquired by Gaz Métro, a Canadian energy company.

Standard Solar specializes in the development and financing of commercial solar projects, focusing on distributed generation solar. Typical clients include businesses, universities and governments.

The company will remain based in Rockville under the name Standard Solar, and it expects to grow and hire more employees. The companies expect the deal to close within the next couple of weeks. They are not disclosing the terms of the acquisition.

Gaz Métro, based in Canada, has more than $2.9 billion in assets in the United States.

The biggest part of the acquisition will allow Standard Solar access to Gaz Métro’s capital, allowing Standard Solar to finance its own projects.

It’s been traditionally hard to finance some projects because different financiers have different limitations, said Scott Wiater, Standard Solar’s president and CEO.

With the access to capital provided by Gaz Metro, Standard Solar will have greater ability to choose which projects it wants. The company also expects this capital will allow it to finance projects by others in the field of distributed generation.

Wiater expects that Gaz Métro will gain expertise in the U.S. market and be a partner that can continue to add assets. For its part, the solar company will diversify Gaz Métro’s energy portfolio.