Notable Renewable Energy Projects and Deals
eSolar Energy News - Aug 13
Borrego Solar Systems, Inc., a designer, installer, and financier of grid-tied solar photovoltaic systems, has entered into an agreement to sell 5.5 megawatts of solar energy projects to Greenwood Energy. The projects will be designed and built by Borrego Solar in the cities of Gardner and Walpole, Massachusetts, and are just entering the construction phase. The power purchase agreement contracts will be owned and serviced by Greenwood Energy.
Green Tech Solar News - Aug 13
Lyndon Rive, the CEO of SolarCity has a goal of 1 million solar rooftop customers within five years -- helped in part by today's announcement of buying a direct marketing partner, Paramount Solar, for $120 million. SolarCity will acquire Paramount Solar for $116 million in stock, and the rest in cash. Paramount Equity CEO Hayes Barnard will join SolarCity as chief revenue officer in charge of the firm’s sales and marketing groups. The goal is to be at 1,000,000 solar rooftop customers by July 4, 2018. Rive said that meant incorporating Paramount's "remote and virtual selling" into the SolarCity juggernaut in order to grow from today's 68,000 customers to 1,000,000 rooftops.
EBR - Wind News - Aug 13
Iowa-based energy company MidAmerican Energy Company is gearing up to invest around $1.9 billion to develop 1050 megawatts of wind energy projects in Iowa by the end of 2015. The company has recently secured Iowa Utilities Board approval for the development of the proposed projects across Grundy, Madison, Marshall, O'Brien, and Webster counties. MidAmerican Energy president and CEO Bill Fehrman said providing clean, reliable and low-cost electricity through a diversified renewable portfolio is the best way to cater to customers' energy demands.
PR Newswire News Releases - Aug 12
An investment affiliate of Starwood Energy Group Global, LLC and Mesa Power Group acquired the 377-megawatt Stephens Ranch Wind Project, located in Borden and Lynn Counties, Texas covering more than 47,000 acres. The first phase of the project, sized at 200 megawatts, is expected to begin construction in September 2013 and to achieve commercial operations by August 2014. Starwood Energy's investment affiliate acquired the project from its joint developers, Wind Tex Energy and Mesa Power.
SustainableBusiness.com - Aug 15
General Electric is teaming up with the Department of Energy's Sandia National Lab to design wind turbine blades that are quieter and produce more energy. If rotors could be just one decibel quieter that would increase the energy a turbine can produce by 2% a year, predicts GE Global Research, the company's technical development arm. That 2% adds up to 5 gigawatts of wind power, with a total of 240 gigawatts of wind expected globally over the next five years. That small increase would be enough to supply every household in New York City, Boston, and Los Angeles, combined.
PV-Magazine - Aug 12
In a further indication that its transition from module manufacturer to project developer -- using its own modules -- has been a success, First Solar is continuing to expand its project pipeline in the U.S. and beyond. According to IHS Solar figures, First Solar has approximately doubled its annual installed capacity figures for 2013, from 516 megawatts in 2012. First Solar has also been moving into emerging solar markets and IHS Solar notes its acquisition in January of Solar Chile, which delivered it a 1.5-gigawatt pipeline in the South American country.
Energy Business Review - News - Aug 12
AMEC, a UK-based engineering company, has secured an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract from Sempra U.S. Gas & Power for Copper Mountain Solar 3 project situated near Las Vegas, Nevada. Under the EPC contract for Sempra's third phase of Copper Mountain Solar complex, AMEC will design and construct the 250-megawatt solar project on around 1,400 acres of land, exploiting the intense desert sun in Boulder City.
EarthTechling - Green Tech, Green Products & Energy News - Aug 10
Wind energy is historically a boom or bust business in the U.S., rising and falling with the existence or expiration of the production tax credit. That’s what makes the fate of Pattern Energy’s intended initial public offering, filed this week, interesting. Now, Pattern isn’t just dependent on the U.S. market – it owns interests in four wind farms in the United States and one in Canada, has a partial interest in another in the U.S., and has two under construction – in Ontario and Chile. Those wind farms add up to 1,041 megawatts of rated capacity. The projects generally have long-term power purchase agreements, giving Pattern a very good expectation of continued, predictable cash flow. But IPO filings are required by law to include all the dire circumstances that might unfold, and with wind energy, there sure are a lot of them. Under current law in the U.S., the production tax credit for wind pays off for a ten-year span for wind farms already operating or under construction before the end of this year. Loss of incentives, which could hurt Pattern’s ability to grow, isn’t the only potential problem that Pattern warns of in the prospectus. Things like failing to accurately forecast a wind resource could also hurt the company.
VT Digger News - Aug 13
The Public Service Board last week gave the Seneca Mountain Wind project the go-ahead to build four temporary meteorological (MET) towers in the Northeast Kingdom, Vermont, despite local opposition. The quasi-judicial board permitted two MET towers in Brighton, one in Ferdinand, and one in Newark. The board’s approval of the measurement towers flies in the face of Newark’s town plan, which was altered to oppose wind projects after Seneca Mountain was proposed.
YubaNet.com - Aug 14
The Bureau of Land Management's Bishop Field Office and the U.S. Forest Service, Inyo National Forest, today signed the Records of Decision approving a new 40-megawatt geothermal project near Mammoth Lakes in Mono County. Ormat Nevada Inc. will develop the project on public and private land, and the project will generate more than 180 construction jobs. When completed, the project would produce enough energy to power 36,000 homes.
PV Tech News - Aug 14
Construction will begin in a "matter of weeks" on the first utility-scale solar plant to be built on a Native American reserve according to an announcement made at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas. The Moapa Band of Paiutes has agreed to a lease agreement for 2,000 acres of its 71,954 acres in southern Nevada. K Road Power, a New York based solar developer, has entered into an agreement to lease land for up to 50 years on the Moapa River Indian Reservation to construct and operate a 250-megawatt PV solar plant. The electricity will be sold to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.