Loan Guarantees for Solar - $4.5B for First Solar in CA

First solar is bringing solar PV to CA in a big way!

See also:

Renewable Energy Projects Show Strength in 2011

and

Recent Renewable Federal Loan Guarantees

As reported from Energy.gov here:

Department of Energy Offers Conditional Loan Guarantee Commitments to Support Nearly $4.5 Billion in Loans for Three California Photovoltaic Solar Power Plants
Projects Expected to Create 1,400 Jobs and Generate Approximately 1330 Megawatts of Installed Solar Power

Washington D.C. - U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced offers of conditional commitments for loan guarantees, of approximately $4.5 billion, to support three alternating current Cadmium Telluride (Cd-Te) thin film photovoltaic (PV) solar generation facilities. The Department is offering a conditional commitment for a $680 million loan guarantee to support the Antelope Valley Solar Ranch 1 project, conditional commitments for partial loan guarantees of $1.88 billion in loans to support the Desert Sunlight project, and conditional commitments for partial loan guarantees of $1.93 billion in loans to support the Topaz Solar project. First Solar, Inc., with headquarters in Tempe, Arizona, is sponsoring all three projects and will provide Cd-Te thin film solar PV modules for the projects from a new manufacturing plant that has begun construction in Mesa, Arizona, as well as from its recently expanded manufacturing plant in Perrysburg, Ohio, which serves as its primary hub for engineering, research and development. The company expects that the projects will create a combined 1,400 jobs in California during peak construction.

"These projects will bring immediate jobs to California in addition to hundreds more across the supply chain," said Secretary Chu. "Together the projects will power hundreds of thousands of homes with clean, renewable power and increase our global competitiveness in the clean energy economy."

DOE is offering a conditional commitment for a loan guarantee to AV Solar Ranch 1, LLC to support the Antelope Valley Solar Ranch 1 project. The 230 megawatt (MW) project will be located in the Antelope Valley area of the Western Mojave Desert, approximately 80 miles north of Los Angeles, California. The project is expected to generate 350 construction jobs and will feature a utility-scale deployment of innovative inverters with voltage regulation and monitoring technologies that are new to the U.S. market. The inverters enable the project to provide more stable and continuous power, increasing the efficiency and reliability of large-scale solar power plants greater than 100 MW. The facility is expected to generate over 622,000 megawatt hours of electricity per year, equivalent to powering over 54,000 homes, and will avoid over 350,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually. Power from the Antelope Valley Solar Ranch 1 project will be sold to Pacific Gas & Electric Company.

DOE is offering conditional commitments for partial loan guarantees to Desert Sunlight 250, LLC and Desert Sunlight 300, LLC to support the Desert Sunlight project. The 550 MW project is expected to generate 550 jobs during construction and will be located on land managed by the Bureau of Land Management in eastern Riverside County, California. The Desert Sunlight project is expected to use 8.8 million Cd-Te thin film solar PV modules, which are commercially proven and have been deployed since 2001. The facility is expected to generate enough electricity to power over 110,000 homes and will avoid over 735,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. Project construction will take place in two phases; Phase I will generate 300MW of power, which will be sold to Pacific Gas & Electric Company, while Phase II will generate 250 MW of power, which will be sold to Southern California Edison. The $1.88 billion in loans that are partially guaranteed by DOE will be funded by a syndicate of institutional investors and commercial banks led by lead lender and lender-applicant, Goldman Sachs Lending Partners LLC, which submitted the project under the Financial Institution Partnership Program (FIPP), and Citibank N.A. as co-lead arranger.

DOE is offering conditional commitments for partial loan guarantees to Topaz Solar Farms, LLC to support the Topaz Solar project. The 550 MW project is expected to generate 500 jobs during construction and will be located in eastern San Luis Obispo County, California. The Topaz Solar project will use over 8.5 million Cd-Te thin film solar PV modules and is anticipated to generate enough electricity to power approximately 110,000 homes and avoid nearly 725,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually. The project's power will be sold to Pacific Gas & Electric Company. The $1.93 billion in loans that are partially guaranteed by DOE will be funded by a syndicate of institutional investors and commercial banks led by lead lender and lender-applicant, The Royal Bank of Scotland plc, who submitted the project under the Financial Institution Partnership Program (FIPP).

The Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office administers three separate programs: the Title XVII Section 1703 and Section 1705 loan guarantee programs, and the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing (ATVM) loan program. The loan guarantee programs support the deployment of commercial technologies along with innovative technologies that avoid, reduce, or sequester greenhouse gas emissions, while the ATVM supports the development of advanced vehicle technologies. Under all three programs, DOE has issued loans, loan guarantees or offered conditional commitments for loan guarantees totaling over $38 billion to support 40 clean energy projects across the U.S. The program's 23 generation projects will produce over 32 million megawatt-hours annually, or enough to power over 2.5 million homes. To date, the program has conditionally committed over $16 billion in loan guarantees to support 15 solar generation projects. DOE has also conditionally committed financing to support numerous other projects, such as four of the world's largest solar projects, two geothermal projects, the world's largest wind farm and the nation's first new nuclear power plant in three decades. For more information, please visit the Loan Programs Office.

Outlook for U.S. New Nuclear Build

Current industry analysis points to a reduction in initial new nuclear build, but plans are moving forward.  There is a World wide debate on the future of nuclear energy.  It looks as if most, including the U.S., continue to see nuclear as one of the few options for reliable, low emission, baseload energy generation.  The low cost of natural gas is currently one of the major drivers for the selection of energy production methods as exemplified by the many local small turbine peaker power projects.

See the excerpt below from Dan Yurman's recent blog entry:

What the future looks like for the U.S.
It is very clear that by the end of this decade six reactors will be completed in the U.S. They include two Westinghouse AP1000 units at Southern's Vogtle site in Georgia and two more at Scana's V.C. Summer Station in South Carolina. TVA will complete the Watts Bar plant in Tennessee by 2013 and can be expected to be well on its way to finishing Bellefonte in Alabama
Looking out a bit further, the Calvert Cliffs site in Maryland is likely to get back on track with a new investor and break ground perhaps as early as 2014. Right now the project is stalled because Electricite de France, as a foreign entity, cannot own more than 50% of a U.S. reactor project. As new management takes over at Exelon, it may decide that being the U.S. part of the consortium to build a 1,600 MW Areva EPR is a good deal. 

Will SMRs’ rule in the next decade?
In the 2020-2030 time frame new small modular reactor designs will enter the market. Most likely, those that are based on conventional light water reactor technology have the best chance of getting NRC design certification and licenses.
For NuScale and B&W, a price point of $4,000/Kw will open up the potential for customers among utilities that would not contemplate 1,000 MW units. You aren’t betting the company at $600 million instead of $6 billion. Plus, revenue from the first unit pays for the next, and so on, providing a new business model for medium size utilities to get in the nuclear game.
NuScale, which is developing a 45 MW design, may seek early market share and success in developing nations such as India before attempting a run at U.S. customers.
Babcock & Wilcox is working with TVA to develop a feasible licensing path forward for its 125 MW design at the utility's Clinch River site.

Renewable Energy Projects Show Strength in 2011

2011 and 2012 are looking to be good years for renewable energy.  Proposed installation and current construction numbers are very encouraging.  Federal loan guarantees have picked up momentum as described in a previous post: http://powertrends.blogspot.com/2011/05/recent-renewable-federal-loan.html 

According to the numbers shown by the SEIA – Solar Energy Industries Association there is a considerable effort afoot.

 

Type	Operating	Under construction	Under Development	Total
Concentrating Solar	508 MW	679 MW	8,307 MW	9,494 MW
Photovoltaic	296 MW	274 MW	16,688 MW	17,258 MW

According to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), the U.S. wind power industry installed 1,100 megawatts (MW) of new capacity in the first quarter of 2011 and entered the second quarter with another 5,600 MW under construction. The under-construction figure is nearly twice the megawatts that the industry reported at the same time in both 2009 and 2010. The total U.S. wind fleet capacity now stands at 41,400 MW, which is enough to supply 10 million homes.

The first quarter's new capacity came online in 12 different states, with some seeing double-digit growth. The states adding the most capacity were Minnesota (293 MW), Washington (252 MW), and Illinois (240 MW). AWEA reported that one third of the 5,600 MW currently under construction is located in California, Oregon, and Washington. See the AWEA press release.


Net Generation Comparison Jan 2011 vs. Jan 2010 (source):

Items	Total (All Sectors)
	Jan-11	Jan-10	% Change
Net Generation (thousand megawatthours)
Coal[1]	171,246	173,505	-1.3
Petroleum Liquids[2]	1,840	3,171	-42
Petroleum Coke	1,448	1,130	28.1
Natural Gas[3]	74,070	73,558	0.7
Other Gases[4]	923	909	1.5
Nuclear	72,743	72,569	0.2
Hydroelectric Conventional	25,746	22,156	16.2
Other Renewables	14,966	13,077	14.4
Wood and Wood-Derived Fuels[5]	3,167	3,248	-2.5
Other Biomass[6]	1,432	1,482	-3.4
Geothermal	1,435	1,373	4.6
Solar Thermal and Photovoltaic[7]	43	10	343.2
Wind	8,888	6,965	27.6
Hydroelectric Pumped Storage	-426	-537	20.6
Other Energy Sources[8]	824	863	-4.6
All Energy Sources	363,378	360,401	0.8
[1] Anthracite, bituminous, subbituminous, lignite, waste coal, and coal synfuel.
[2] Distillate fuel oil, residual fuel oil, jet fuel, and kerosene.
[3] Natural gas includes a small amount of supplemental gaseous fuels that cannot be identified separately.
[4] Blast furnace gas, propane gas, and other manufactured and waste gases derived from fossil fuels.
[5] Wood, black liquor, and other wood waste.
[6] Biogenic municipal solid waste, landfill gas, sludge waste, agriculture byproducts, and other biomass.
[7] Solar thermal and photovoltaic energy.
[8] Non-biogenic municipal solid waste, batteries, chemicals, hydrogen, pitch, purchased steam, sulfur, tire-derived fuel, and miscellaneous technologies.
[9] Anthracite, bituminous, subbituminous, coal synfuel, and lignite; excludes waste coal.
[10] Retail sales and net generation may not correspond exactly for a particular month for a variety of reasons (e.g., sales data may include imported electricity).  Net generation is for the calendar month while retail sales and associated revenue accumulate from bills collected for periods of time (28 to 35 days) that vary dependent upon customer class and consumption occurring in and outside the calendar month.
[11] See Technical notes for additional information on the Commercial, Industrial, and Transportation sectors.

Year to Year Net Generation-Renewables (source):

(Thousand Megawatthours)
Period	Wind	Solar Thermal	Wood and Wood-Derived Fuels[1]	Geothermal	Other	Total
		and Photovoltaic			Biomass[2]	(Other Renewables)
1997	3,288	511	36,948	14,726	21,709	77,183
1998	3,026	502	36,338	14,774	22,448	77,088
1999	4,488	495	37,041	14,827	22,572	79,423
2000	5,593	493	37,595	14,093	23,131	80,906
2001	6,737	543	35,200	13,741	14,548	70,769
2002	10,354	555	38,665	14,491	15,044	79,109
2003	11,187	534	37,529	14,424	15,812	79,487
2004	14,144	575	38,117	14,811	15,421	83,067
2005	17,811	550	38,856	14,692	15,420	87,329
2006	26,589	508	38,762	14,568	16,099	96,525
2007	34,450	612	39,014	14,637	16,525	105,238
2008	55,363	864	37,300	14,840	17,734	126,101
2009	73,886	891	36,050	15,009	18,443	144,279
2010	94,647	1,299	37,975	15,666	18,557	168,144
2011 through January	8,888	43	3,167	1,435	1,432	14,966
[1] Wood/wood waste solids (including paper pellets, railroad ties, utility poles, wood chips, bark, and wood waste solids), wood waste liquids (red liquor, sludge wood, spent sulfite liquor, and other wood-based liquids), and black liquor.
[2] Biogenic municipal solid waste, landfill gas, sludge waste, agricultural byproducts, other biomass solids, other biomass liquids, and other biomass gases (including digester gases, methane, and other biomass gases).

Extra Credit:  Using 2008 generation and installed capacity one can determine capacity factor for power generation sources in 2008.  Simple calculation with no assumptions just installed versus generated. (data source):
Wind  = 25%
Solar  = 18%
Nuclear  = 87%
Coal  = 67%
Natural Gas  = 22%