 | 11/12/2013 | Agua Caliente ahead of schedule |
NRG Energy says construction of its 51% owned 290MW (AC) Agua Caliente solar PV project in Arizona is several months ahead of schedule and is now scheduled for completion in early 2014.
Agua Caliente, which will become the world’s largest operating solar PV facility, achieved commercial operation on 30 September.
MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company acquired a 49% interest from NRG Energy in January 2012. Terms were not disclosed.
First Solar designed and is building the project using thin-film solar modules. It will also operate and maintain the facility.
Agua Caliente is being financed with support from a loan guarantee from the US Energy Department Loans Programme Office.
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| 8/9/2013 | Solar provides bright spot amid NRG Energy’s disappointing results |
NRG Energy solar assets provided a bright spot amid otherwise disappointing quarterly earnings, the company said today.
The largest Independent Power Producer in the US has had to adjust its earnings guidance for 2013 by 3%-4% because of mild weather in Texas and lower wholesale electricity prices. The adjusted EBITDA for 2013 was reduced to $2.55bn to $2.7bn.
David Crane, chief executive of NRG Energy, said: "If there is a silver lining it is that in 2014 we will be in a much better position to reap the benefit of long term strategic plan to diversify our financial performance away from 100% dependence on cyclical commodity risk into a broader and more resilient set of revenue streams."
Crane pointed to the timely completion of almost all of 835MW solar projects, part of a $5bn construction programme, including parts of large-scale PV projects at Agua Caliente and the California Valley Solar Ranch (CVSR) facility. Over 265MW of 390MW aggregated power are operational.
Crane admitted that completion of the $2.2bn Ivanpah plant, co-owned by NRG Energy, BrightSource Energy and Google, had slipped to the fourth quarter of this year.
"At this point all units at Ivanpah are at or very near physically completed and the multi-stage commissioning process is being done. We are moving through the commissioning process deliberately and thoroughly to make sure it is done right.
"We are increasingly confident that this groundbreaking solar thermal project is going to be a big success when it achieves commercial operation in the fourth quarter of 2013."
NRG Yield's initial public offering closed last month, raising $462 million in cash. The second quarter adjusted EBITDA was $61 million; $36 million higher than second quarter 2012. The improvement was driven by assets that achieved commercial operations in 2013, including the Borrego, Alpine and Avra Valley solar facilities.
NRG Yield is listed on the NYSE and is currently trading at $28.42/share, with an implied 2014 EBITDA multiple of 12.8x.
"NRG Yield significantly enhances our strategic competitiveness in two of our three critical business areas," said Crane. "This is a very important development in terms of our growth aspirations for our renewables business because at long last there are signs at long last that the big strategic players in our industry are awakening from their long slumber and finally recognising both the opportunity and the risk to them that solar represents. And some of them are trying to get active with their lower cost of capital in acquiring contracted solar assets.
"NRG Yield goes a long way to reducing or eliminating our costs of capital which is an advantage to them making it possible for us to continue to win projects and opportunities based on our greater nimbleness and our understanding of the renewables space, in particular the solar business."
NRG retains a 65.5% economic and voting interest in NRG Yield, which in turn holds a right of first offer for six additional contracted assets currently owned by NRG, which has a further 66MW in new utility scale projects including largest contiguous rooftop solar array in the world at Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas.
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| 11/29/2012 | SunPower to energize 130 MWs of California Valley Solar Ranch by end of year |
By the end of 2012 SunPower Corp. expects to have 130 megawatts of the 250 megawatt California Valley Solar Ranch providing energy to Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) customers. It’s a significant jump for the project, which commissioned its first 22 megawatts in September.
The project, which is using SunPower modules on its T0 Tracker system, is slated for completion next year. “When completed in 2013 the power plant will supply enough renewable clean energy for 100,000 homes,” said Skyler Shipley, a project field engineer for SunPower.
Construction on the project began just over a year ago, braking ground in September 2011. After SunPower broke ground on the project it was purchased by NRG Energy which will sell the power produced by the project to PG&E. “This is one of our top two projects in the PG&E portfolio,” said PG&E Senior Vice President Energy Procurement Fong Wan. “We have over 60 solar projects, this is in the top 2.”
It is among the largest single photovoltaic farms in the world and is growing on pace with some of the other gigantic solar farms in the U.S., like the Agua Calienete solar photovoltaic farm being built in Yuma, County Ariz., by First Solar. That project, a 290 megawatt AC project is slated to come online in 2014. However, it already is producing 200 megawatts of electricity. First Solar stopped delivering modules to the site earlier this year since it met current targets for installations.
The SunPower project is across the border in the eastern part of California’s San Luis Obispo County. The project has already resulted in 350 jobs during the construction phase, helping reduce unemployment in the county. It also is injecting $315 million into the local community, according to SunPower.
As part of the project, SunPower also is protecting more than 12,000 acres of wildlife habitat for perpetuity through the project. The land set aside is intended to help grow the amount of land under protection on the Carrizo Plain.
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| 9/12/2012 | US solar installations continue to grow at record setting pace |
If you look at a graph of the amount of solar being installed quarterly over the past few years, you’ll quickly notice a trend, it’s like a series of hills ramping upwards. That trend has continued into the second quarter of 2012, but it’s growing even more.
With more than 742 megawatts of new solar photovoltaic power installed, the second quarter of 2012 is the second-best quarter for solar installations in the U.S.’s history, according to U.S. Solar Market Insight: 2nd Quarter 2012, by GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). And that’s not including the completion of the 30 megawatt concentrating photovoltaic Alamosa Solar Generating station that came online in the second quarter.
The report also includes projects like Agua Calienete, which, while still under development, has already become the largest operational solar farm in the world. As of July it was producing 200 megawatts of power, and it’s since grown.
The quarter was up 45 percent over the first quarter of 2012 and a whopping 116 percent over the second quarter of 2011. What’s more, the growth trend is expected to continue throughout the rest of the year, according to SEIA Vice President Tom Kimbus. Given that 791 megawatts were installed in the fourth quarter of 2011, this year’s third quarter could break the overall record for solar installed in a quarter. In fact, according to the report, there are 3,400 megawatts of utility PV projects currently under construction in the U.S.
The only part of the solar market that didn’t see sweeping growth in the quarter was concentrating solar power (CSP). But that’s not to say they’re not growing as well. “We anticipate construction beginning on several CSP plants before the end of the years, but don’t expect any to be completed until 2013,” Kimbus said. For instance, 92 percent of the pylon installations for BrightSource’s Ivanpah project were completed in the second quarter. When completed it will add 370 megawatts of power to 546 megawatts of CSP power currently generating.
The growth was led by utility installations, which hit 477 megawatts in the second quarter, according to the report. Eight states, California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Illinois, North Carolina, New Mexico, and New Jersey, had utility installations of 10 megawatts or greater. In all, the U.S. now has 5,700 megawatts of installed solar capacity, the report said.
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| 9/10/2012 | World's Largest Operational Solar PV Project, Agua Caliente, Achieves 250 Megawatts of Grid-Connected Power |
First Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq: FSLR) today announced that the Agua Caliente solar project has achieved a peak generating capacity of 250 megawatts (MW)AC connected to the electrical grid. The project, which is under construction in Yuma County, Ariz., is currently the world's largest operating photovoltaic (PV) power plant and will have a generating capacity of 290 MWAC when completed.
Initial construction work at the award-winning Agua Caliente site began in the fall of 2010 and solar module installation began in June of 2011, incorporating First Solar's latest advances in system layout and design, optimized balance-of-system components, and integrated work-flow engineering. The resulting efficiencies enabled the project to begin commercial operation just seven months later in January 2012 when it began generating 30 MW of clean electricity for the grid, and it surpassed 100 MW of grid-connected power this spring and 200 MW this summer. Construction of the project is expected to be complete on schedule in 2014.
The record-setting project has successfully met all of its contractual milestones to date and exceeded targets for the speed, quality and safety of the construction process. As a result, First Solar has adjusted the construction schedule to a slower velocity in line with future contractual milestones and the scheduled completion date. The adjustments have provided First Solar with increased flexibility to allocate its solar module supply to better serve increased demand in the second half of 2012 across its portfolio of projects.
"The Agua Caliente project exemplifies how utility-grade solar PV power can be rapidly deployed in a phased approach and seamlessly integrated into the electrical grid," said Jim Tyler, Vice President of Development Engineering in First Solar's Engineering, Procurement and Construction Group. "We are extremely proud to set a new benchmark for the industry with Agua Caliente, which incorporates the knowledge gained over years of experience designing, building and operating utility-scale solar projects for leading utilities and energy providers."
First Solar designed and is constructing the project using its advanced thin-film photovoltaic modules and will operate and maintain the facility for owners NRG Energy and MidAmerican Solar. Pacific Gas and Electric Company has a 25-year power purchase agreement for the project's electrical output, which is projected to displace approximately 5.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide over 25 years, the equivalent of taking more than 40,000 cars off the road annually. The facility, which is owned by NRG and MidAmerican Solar, will employ a daily average of 400 to 450 workers during the construction period.
The Agua Caliente project is being financed with support from a loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office.
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