Weekly Intelligence Brief
Weekly Intelligence Brief: February 22 - March 01
1 March 2010
This week’s CSP Today news roundup includes: Stirling Energy Systems; Solar Millennium; Sky Fuel; BrightSource; and an update on Arizona's House Bill 2701.
Draft environmental study available for SES Solar Two project
An assessment and draft environmental statement for Stirling Energy Systems 750 MW Solar Two (SES Solar Two) Project in Imperial County has been released by California Energy Commission and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
Stirling has applied for a right-of-way authorisation to construct a solar power plant on 6,144 acres of public land about 14 miles west of El Centro.
The joint staff assessment/draft environmental statement SA/DEIS will serve as commission staff’s testimony and recommended mitigation measures during the evidentiary hearings phase on the proposed project.
The Energy Commission will conduct evidentiary hearings and commission staff/ and the BLM will publish a Supplemental Staff Assessment final environmental impact statement (SAA/FEIS).
The Energy Commission will then publish the presiding member’s proposed decision (PMPD). The PMPD will be available for public review and comment, after which the full Commission renders a final decision and the federal government issues its record of decision and land use plan amendment on the proposed project.
If the project is approved, BLM will issue a right of way grant to Stirling Energy Systems and will implement its plan amendment. Its decisions are expected later this year.
Upon approval, SES Solar Two would begin construction this year. The proposed plant would use SunCatcher solar-dish technology.
The project would be constructed in two phases. Phase I of the project would consist of up to 12,000 SunCatchers with a nominal generating capacity of 300 MW. Phase II would consist of approximately 18,000 SunCatchers.
The joint SA/DEIS for the SES Solar Two Project is now available for public comment until May 13, 2010.
Solar Millennium posts record profit
Solar Millennium’s net profit more than doubled in the 2008/2009 fiscal year, as the company posted its best financial results to date.
The company’s net profits rose by more than 260% to €24.0 million (US$33mn).
The company highlighted that it managed to design and successfully implement new financing options for its major projects.
The company generated consolidated sales of €201.3 million. This is more than six times higher than the previous year’s figure (€32 million in 2007/2008).
A significant share in this sales increase was attributed to the Project Financing segment.
In addition to the sale of stakes in Marquesado Solar S.L., the project company of the Andasol 3 power plant that is still under construction, stakes in the project company Ibersol Electricidad Solar Ibérica S.L. were also sold successfully.
Furthermore, the sale of the remaining stakes (25% each) in the Andasol 1 and 2 solar power plants to the Spanish ACS/Cobra Group, scheduled for the previous fiscal year, was finally completed.
The closed-end fund issued in autumn 2009 in connection with the Andasol 3 power plant (effectively equivalent to a sale of stakes), too, made another important contribution to sales.
Solar Millennium is targeting sales worth €350 million and EBIT in the amount of €45 million ($61mn)for the current 2009/2010 fiscal year on a Group level.
Senior management reshuffle at SkyFuel
Albuquerque, New Mexico-based SkyFuel’s Dr. Arnold Leitner, the founder and CEO since the company’s inception in 2007, is leaving the company to pursue other interests.
Richard Smith has joined has joined SkyFuel’s board of directors and will act as interim CEO until a permanent CEO is found.
Smith, former president of Bechtel Corporation’s Fossil Power division and former CEO of InterGen, joins SkyFuel at a stage when the company has already completed the commercial demonstration of the SkyTrough parabolic trough concentrator.
Dr. Leitner stated that Skyfuel’s SkyTrough is established and that this is the right time for the company to transition to a new CEO with broader commercial experience.
To his credit, Smith has managed multiple power and energy projects and transactions totalling more than US$10 billion.
BrightSource receives US$1.37b in loan guarantees
U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) has confirmed nearly US$1.4 billion (€1bn) in conditional loan guarantees under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for BrightSource Energy.
The guarantees will support the construction and start-up of three utility-scale concentrated solar power plants.
The new plants will generate approximately 400MW of electricity. The three-plant Ivanpah Solar Complex will be located on federally-owned land in the Mojave Desert in southeastern California, near the Nevada border.
The loan guarantee is conditional on BrightSource meeting financial and environmental requirements, including local, state and federal regulatory approvals.
The Bureau of Land Management will continue leading a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review with support from the Department of Energy. This announcement does not affect that process.
The first plant is expected to begin construction in the second half of 2010 and come on line in 2012. Commercial operation for the second plant is slated for mid-2013 and the third later in 2013.
Electricity from the project will be sold under long-term power purchase agreements with Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison Company (SCE). The project will be interconnected to the electricity grid via an upgraded SCE transmission line.
Last month, the Oakland, California-based company submitted an alternative design for the Ivanpah Solar Energy Generating System project. This mitigation proposal, according to the company, would reduce the project’s footprint of the overall Ivanpah project by about 12%.
House Bill 2701 withdrawn
Glendale Republican Rep. Debbie Lesko has reportedly chosen to drop a bill that critics said would threaten the future of Arizona’s fledgling solar-energy industry.
The House Bill (HB) 2701 proposed to replace the existing Renewable Energy Standard (RES) in Arizona with one that would allow utilities to use existing nuclear and hydroelectric power to meet the RES requirements, eliminate distributed generation requirements within the bill and eliminate any interim requirements between now and 2025.
According to the AP, the measure sponsored by Lesko “would have gutted the renewable energy standards adopted by the Arizona Corporation Commission”.
Lesko planned to introduce the bill to save utility customers money. The plan was to give the legislature exclusive authority over setting renewable energy policy. As per the bill, the legislature can set a statewide energy policy. Also, it would have added nuclear and hydro-electric to the mix of clean energy sources that can be used to reach a 15% clean energy goal.
For their part, several companies including SolarCity, Kyocera Solar, Inc. and Suntech Power Holdings warned that if the HB 2701 was passed into law, it would have jeopardised Arizona’s entire renewable energy industry.
Solar companies also highlighted that HB 2701 would have created a situation where solar companies and utilities would have had to answer to two elected bodies of government.
