CALA diesel plants changing hands. Refi/new depreciation basis to take advantage of lower cost fuel?
Monday, August 31, 2015
InterEnergy Holdings Acquires Power Plants in Panama and Jamaica from Conduit Capital Partners - Global Energy World
Rijn secures financing for Chile project
31.08.2015: The Chilean Environmental Evaluation Service (SEA) has approved a 63.1 MW PV project proposed by Planta Solar Lagunas S.A., a subsidiary of Dutch investment firm Rijn Capital. The Proyecto Fotovoltaico Lagunas project has a required investment of $180.0 million and will be located in the municipality of Pozo Almonte in northen Chile's Tarapaca region. Construction on the plant is scheduled to begin by the end of 2015. Rijn Capital has a PV project pipeline of over 500 MW in Chile. © PHOTON
seia.sea.gob.cl/expediente/ tab / fichaPrincipal.php? mode = & tab = 2130159852 id_expediente
seia.sea.gob.cl/archivos/2015/ 08/26 / RCA_N_60_PFV_LAgunas.pdf
Brazil awards in latest auction
Thirty PV projects with a combined capacity of 834 MW were selected in Brazil’s reserve energy auction, which was held on Aug. 29, 2015. The Brazilian Energy Agency (EPE), part of Brazil’s Ministry of Mines and Energy, had accepted 341 PV projects with a combined capacity 11,261 MW for the auction. The auction ended with an average price of 301.79 BRL ($84.2) per MWh. The starting maximum price for the auction was 349.0 BRL ($97.3) per MWh. Projects selected in the auction must begin delivering power in August 2017 and will sell their electricity output to the Brazilian grid under a 20-year PPA. The 30 projects will be developed in the Brazilian states of Bahia (12), Piauí (9), Minas Gerais (5), Paraíba (3) and Tocantins (1). According to local solar association BSEC, 14 projects submitted by Italian renewable energy company Enel Green Power, a subsidiary of the Enel group, were selected through the auction. These projects will have a combined capacity of 410 MW. This is the third time that PV projects are selected through Brazil's energy auctions. © PHOTON
Monty Bannerman
ArcStar Energy
+1-646-402-5076
www.arcstarenergy.com
Saturday, August 29, 2015
BBC News: Boeing laser shoots drone from sky
I saw this on the BBC News App and thought you should see it:
Boeing laser shoots drone from sky
Boeing laser shoots drone from sky
Boeing says it has successfully shot a drone out of the sky using a high-powered laser during a test.
Disclaimer: The BBC is not responsible for the content of this email, and anything written in this email does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the email address nor name of the sender have been verified.
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FW: How India Goes Solar Could Change the World - Renewable Energy Worldmb
Definitely global implications. The domestic market banks are always a problem at the front end. This should put some lead in their pencils.
Monty Bannerman
ArcStar Energy
+1-646-402-5076
www.arcstarenergy.com
From: Rebecca Van Nichols [mailto:rvan@tnag.net]
Sent: Saturday, August 29, 2015 2:32 PM
To: mbannerman@arcstarenergy.com
Subject: How India Goes Solar Could Change the World - Renewable Energy World
How India Goes Solar Could Change the World
August 28, 2015
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's proposals for a draft National Renewable Energy Act raising renewable deployment to 175 GW by 2022, with 100 GW of solarhas grabbed headlines worldwide.
After all, given its rapid growth, sizzling heat and dependence on coal, India's energy problem is an increasing threat to the global climate for everyone. Modi's dazzling 100 GW solar target is on exactly the kind of grand scale the world needs.
But why should we take this new goal seriously? After all, India's first outrageously ambitious goal announced in the lead-up to the Copenhagen climate talks in 2009 targeted 20 GW of solar by 2020. With just five years left till that deadline, only one fifth of the goal – four gigawatts – is installed.
With that disappointing result, this year's five-times-bigger solar goal for two years later may seem just more of the same headline-grabbing talk in the lead-up to another important climate talk in Paris at the end of this year. Both of the other biggest polluters – China and the U.S. – have raised the ante in those talks, with ambitious and yet actually achievable goals.
The Big Money
Here is the game changing difference: The biggest obstacle to reaching the original 20 GW target was financing. India's Copenhagen goal had been thwarted by the country's extremely conservative financial sector, which balked at the unknown, unable to commit to financing renewable energy.
This year, Modi has taken a more solutions-oriented approach. By openly calling on international financial interests this year to intervene, Modi is actively seeking outside investors to meet India's latest ambitious solar goal.
Modi asked companies from Germany, China, Japan and the U.S. to lead the needed investment of $100 billion to boost India's solar energy capacity to 100 GW.
Foreign banks responded, tripling that figure. At the RE-Invest 2015 summit in India, almost 300 global companies committed to invest over $300 billion over the next decade – enough to generate nearly 300 GW of solar, wind, biomass and mini-hydro, and more than enough to meet the total renewable target of 175 GW by 2022.
Japan's SoftBank Corporation, together with Bharti Enterprises and Taiwan's Foxconn, led the way with a commitment to invest the first $20 billion.
The huge move by SoftBank unleashed a gold rush. Foreign investment commitments poured in. China's Trina Solar is investing $500 million in solar panel manufacturing. SunEdison is investing $15 billion by 2022.
With the world's financial backing, the 100 GW solar target is achievable.
A Distributed Energy Revolution
Modi would like to electrify almost half a billion homes by 2022 with solar. More than half of India's 1 billion people have no electricity.
When the U.S. brought electric power from sea to shining sea it was with centralized coal power stations on a massive distribution grid crisscrossing the continent with the transmission and railroad system to move that coal power.
Bringing electricity to those now without power in India will be quite different.
Almost half of India's 100 GW of solar will be distributed solar on rooftops, bypassing the country's piecemeal transmission system altogether.
This radical change will come to a nation that is now 60% dependent on coal. India's total installed capacity, serving only half its demand, is around 232 GW. Large hydro plants supply 40 GW – of a 150 GW potential – nuclear supplies 5 GW and 29 GW comes from renewables, mostly wind. Solar will go from the current 1 percent to 20 percent of the new grid.
A New Energy Paradigm
Why is Modi focusing half the solar target on rooftops? Because distributed solar can bypass the logistical problems of securing land, getting off takers to buy the power to send to customers, and big transmission investment.
The revolutionary aspect of a $50 billion focus on rooftop PV in a developing nation is historic. Developers will be able to sell directly to private companies; competing with the retail cost of power.
Last year Power Minister Piyush Goyal estimated the cost of India's needed transmission alone at $250 billion.
These issues will have to be resolved in the new market, from difficulties in buying land and fixing the considerable transmission problems to the risk of solar panel thefts. Many small state utilities struggle to supply affordable power, so they are reluctant to buy renewables at twice the cost of coal.
In part, Modi's mandates will take care of bringing that cost down, as it has in other markets, by simply getting more renewables online, driving cost reductions by learning-by-doing.
And infrastructure investment is an opportunity for clean energy growth. The U.S. did not transition from wood-fired cottages to coal-powered cities without massive investment in transmission and the railroads needed to move all that coal around. Imagine if clean energy was an option when the U.S. was a developing nation.
And there are advantages. Construction costs for solar are half those of Japan.
"Twice the sunshine, half the cost, that means four times the efficiency," Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son told reporters in a conference.
The imagination and vision of clean energy financiers globally could possibly topple a looming climate threat.
Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
Friday, August 28, 2015
Bloomberg: BlackRock Warns Brazil Must Preserve Rating to Lure Investment
From Bloomberg, Aug 28, 2015, 2:00:57 PM
The world's biggest money manager said Brazil must do all that it takes to maintain its investment-grade credit rating if it wants to remain an attractive destination for foreign capital.
To read the entire article, go to http://bloom.bg/1N0ARQ7
Sent from the Bloomberg iPad application. Download the free application at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bloomberg-for-ipad/id364304764?mt=8
Sent from a mobile device.
Bloomberg: Carstens Reiterates Mexico May Not Have to Wait for Fed Hike
From Bloomberg, Aug 28, 2015, 4:42:55 PM
Mexico central bank Governor Agustin Carstens reiterated that policy makers haven't ruled out raising interest rates before the U.S. if they sense peso weakness creating conditions that could spur faster inflation.
To read the entire article, go to http://bloom.bg/1WXCb9s
Sent from the Bloomberg iPad application. Download the free application at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bloomberg-for-ipad/id364304764?mt=8
Sent from a mobile device.
BBC News: Nasa starts year-long isolation to simulate life on Mars
If you just gotta have a power source, choose solar.
Nasa starts year-long isolation to simulate life on Mars
Nasa starts year-long isolation to simulate life on Mars
A team of Nasa recruits begins a year-long isolation in a dome near a barren volcano in Hawaii, to simulate life on Mars.
Disclaimer: The BBC is not responsible for the content of this email, and anything written in this email does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the email address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Sent from a mobile device.
Bloomberg: Canada Says 2015 Budget Plan on Track After June Fiscal Report
From Bloomberg, Aug 28, 2015, 11:00:21 AM
Canada's federal government reported a budget surplus of C$1.1 billion ($830 million) in June and said it is on track to meet a surplus for the full fiscal year.
To read the entire article, go to http://bloom.bg/1Joch5E
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Bloomberg: Consumer Spending in U.S. Rose in July as Wages Picked Up
From Bloomberg, Aug 28, 2015, 8:30:02 AM
Consumer purchases climbed in July as incomes grew, showing the biggest part of the U.S. economy was off to a good start to the quarter.
To read the entire article, go to http://bloom.bg/1MSFiuP
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Bloomberg: Brazil's Real Leads Losses in Latin America as Stocks Fluctuate
From Bloomberg, Aug 28, 2015, 9:38:21 AM
Brazil's real led losses in Latin America and stocks fluctuated after data showing Latin America's largest economy entered a recession added to concern corporate earnings will falter.
To read the entire article, go to http://bloom.bg/1hkS9JW
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BBC News: Brazil's economy enters recession
Brazil's economy enters recession
Brazil enters recession, as official figures show the country's economy contracted by 1.9% between April and June, compared with the previous three months.
Disclaimer: The BBC is not responsible for the content of this email, and anything written in this email does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the email address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Sent from a mobile device.
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Bloomberg: Blame Oil Glut on Investors Who Still Love Drilling Over Profits
From Bloomberg, Aug 25, 2015, 7:01:00 PM
Investors sent a surprising message to U.S. shale producers as crude fell almost 20 percent in August: keep calm and drill on.
To read the entire article, go to http://bloom.bg/1JXZufI
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Fwd: Transmission and distribution: GE to build 30-Megawatt battery energy storage system
Storage Adding more short cycle applications and getting more market penetration.
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GE to build 30-Megawatt battery energy storage system
August 20, 2015
Source: GE
Continuing its mission to deliver comprehensive energy storage solutions,GE (NYSE: GE) today announced it will provide Coachella Energy Storage Partners (CESP) with a 30-MW battery energy storage system as part of CESP's supply contract with the Imperial Irrigation District (IID). Representing GE's largest energy storage project to date, the plant will be located in California's Imperial Valley, approximately 100 miles east of San Diego. The facility will aid grid flexibility and increase reliability on the IID network by providing solar ramping, frequency regulation, power balancing and black start capability for an adjacent gas turbine.
"We chose GE as the energy storage system provider for this project because they supplied the most comprehensive solution at a competitive price," said Mike Abatti, president of CESP. "GE is well-positioned to serve the needs of the project and will remain a stable, reliable technology provider as the energy storage industry evolves."
GE will provide CESP with an integrated energy storage solution, configured using GE's Mark* VI plant controls, GE Brilliance* MW inverters, GE Prolec transformers, medium-voltage switchgear and advanced lithium ion batteries housed in a GE purpose-built enclosure. The plant will be operated by ZGlobal, an engineering collaborator with CESP, for the first 18 months, after which control will transfer to the IID.
"This project is a game changer to the energy industry and will be one of the largest battery storage plants in the western United States," said Ziad Alaywan, P.E., a California energy veteran and president & CEO of ZGlobal Inc. "We are confident in GE's technology and look forward to a successful project."
The deal marks GE's third project using lithium ion battery technology since expanding its portfolio in recent months, joining recent announcements with Con Edison Development in California and Convergent Energy + Power in Ontario.
"While we always strive to provide competitive pricing, what really differentiates GE is the fact that we listen to our customers and help craft a customized energy storage strategy," said Anne McEntee, president and CEO of GE's renewable energy business. "We focus on full system performance rather than individual component pieces, allowing customers to match power production with demand in real time and utilize grid assets more efficiently."
GE anticipates project construction will begin early next year, with commercial operation scheduled for the third quarter of 2016.
Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
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Fwd: New 475-MW natural gas plant to be built in Ohio - Pennenergy
A little over $0.60/w AC to install a state of the art gas turbine generator of this scale.
http://www.power-eng.com/articles/2015/08
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New 475-MW natural gas plant to be built in Ohio
August 20, 2015
Construction of a new 475-megawatt (MW) natural gas-fired power plant will soon begin at a facility in Middleton, Ohio, this according to news released today byGemma Power Systems (GPS). The company announced that it has received Interim Notice to Proceed (INTP) to commence activities under an Engineering, Procurement and Construction Services (EPC) contract with NTE Ohio LLC, an affiliate of NTE Energy, to begin construction of the new plant.
The Ohio project will feature an advancedMitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas(MHPSA) M501GAC combustion turbine generator, a Vogt Power Internationalsupplementary-fired heat recovery steam generator and a Toshiba America Energy Systems steam turbine generator. It is one of two similar projects which GPS is contracted to perform for NTE; the second project is located in Kings Mountain, NC for NTE Carolinas LLC.
The Middletown Energy Center project has a contract value of approximately $300 million and is scheduled to be completed in the second quarter of 2018. The Kings Mountain Energy Center project is anticipated to be released in September and will be complete later in 2018.
The Middletown Energy Center project will employ 300 craft workers at the peak of construction. Approximately 25-30 full time employees will be required to operate the facility when it is completed.
Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
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Fwd: 5 Reasons Utilities Are Hating on Their Solar-Producing Customers - Renewable Energy World
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rebecca Van Nichols <rvan@tnag.net>
Date: Tue, Aug 25, 2015 at 1:44 AM
Subject: 5 Reasons Utilities Are Hating on Their Solar-Producing Customers - Renewable Energy World
To: mbannerman@arcstarenergy.com
This article originally posted at ilsr.org. For timely updates, follow John Farrell on Twitter or get th
From: Rebecca Van Nichols <rvan@tnag.net>
Date: Tue, Aug 25, 2015 at 1:44 AM
Subject: 5 Reasons Utilities Are Hating on Their Solar-Producing Customers - Renewable Energy World
To: mbannerman@arcstarenergy.com
renewablesolar08252015
5 Reasons Utilities Are Hating on Their Solar-Producing Customers
Aug 24, 2015
1. Utilities Don't View Customer-Owned Solar Power as a Resource
Read a utility integrated resource plan (their 15-year plan for the electric grid), and you can see an electric utility wax eloquent about a shiny new 100 megawatt power plant that could provide energy during peak energy periods with zero fuel cost. But if instead of a big utility-built power plant we're talking about 10,000 individual solar arrays on customer rooftops, utilities lose all perspective.
In Minnesota, for example, the state legislature passed a "value of solar" program that requires the state's largest utility, Xcel Energy, to calculate how much solar energy is worth to its grid. In 2014 and 2015, the utility has reported that the value of solar energy is higher than the cost to the utility in buying it from customers via net metering. Other studies have shown similar results, including one in Maine, in Missouri, and in many other states.
Faced with compelling evidence of the value of customer-produced solar power, why haven't utilities come around?
2. The Utility Business Model Seems Broken
For most investor-owned (for profit) utilities in particular, this new data can't be squared with their old business model. In a study by the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, researchers found that the ratepayer impact of lots of customer-owned solar is quite small, but the larger impact falls on utility shareholders. Solar may mean modest revenue reductions for electric utilities, but by offsetting the need for new, large-scale power plants, solar's real threat is in choking off the for-profit utility's source of shareholder returns. The following graphic from the report shows the impact of distributed solar on two hypothetical utilities' shareholders—return on equity (ROE) and earnings—and also on retail electric rates—ordinary ratepayers.
In short, a utility that's spent the past several decades making money by selling more electricity and building new infrastructure doesn't look favorably on a competitor. Municipal utilities (owned by cities) and rural electric cooperatives (owned by their members) don't have this dissonance between shareholders and customers, but the notion of customer-provided power as a resource is often just as shocking. There are a few exceptions (noted later) but not many.
3. It Seems Easier to Fight Than Innovate
In a competitive business it would seem mad to fight your own customers, but most utilities aren't in competition (even in states where there is competition in selling electricity to ultimate customers, the ownership of the distribution grid remains a monopoly). That means there are only a few prominent examples of utilities—such as Green Mountain Power and Farmers Electric Cooperative—working to change yesterday's business model to accommodate today's technology.
For the rest of electric utilities, they've largely chosen to fight their customers rather than accommodate the rise of distributed, customer-owned renewable energy. But that choice is because while they see distributed renewable energy as an opportunity, most have no idea how to make a business around it.
In Wisconsin, electric utilities have shifted more of the monthly bill onto fixed charges, reducing the incentive for their customers to save energy with solar (or any other manner). In Arizona, utilities are slapping fees on solar energy producers, to recoup their lost revenue. In over half of U.S. states (shown below in red), utilities have introduced legislative or regulatory proceedings to fight their customers over solar energy.
The state-by-state battles are part of a coordinated effort by utility executives to address what they see as "a serious, long-term threat to the survival of traditional electricity providers."
So far, utilities have lost more than they've won, but even in winning individual battles utilities may still lose the war because their "victories" in containing customer generated solar power are temporary props to an electricity system that is increasingly archaic.
4. The Electricity System is Fundamentally Changing
It's easy to pick on electric companies for overlooking the value of their customer's energy (and for lashing out with retrograde policies), but it's not entirely their fault. The 100-year-old rules of the electricity system—written by legislatures and governed by public regulatory commissions—granted most electric companies a monopoly over their area of the electric grid. Even as some states introduced competition in selling power to ultimate customers, utilities maintain over the distribution poles and wires that bring power to homes and businesses (and thus much of the power). This monopoly made sense in the 20th century to raise capital for large-scale, low-cost power generation. It worked, giving us reliable and affordable electricity (at any environmental price). It gave utilities comfortable, reliable returns on their investments from regulators at Public Utilities Commissions.
In an era of incremental change where stability was prized over innovation, this monopoly was largely in the public interest.
Consider the difference between a 20th century and 21st century electricity system. In the 20th century, power was generated in large-scale power plants at a distance from population centers, sent by large transmission lines to cities, and managed in a centralized, top-down fashion by a monopoly electric company. There was no viable alternative to this model.
Today, we can generate power on rooftops or farm fields, manage it in real-time with smart thermostats or appliances, and control it remotely with smartphone apps and automation software. In this environment, do we need a traditional, top-down electric utility?
Most utilities won't change by themselves, however. The inertia and cultural stagnation of monopoly make them much better at playing defense than offense. That has regulators in at least one state, New York, saying "no."
The Reforming the Energy Visionprocess just released its first orders, and among them the New York regulators are telling utilities that they will no longer own and operate distributed renewable energy resources. It's the first step toward flattening the electricity system, from a one-way, top-down grid to a massively networked and democratized energy delivery marketplace. Similar processes are underway in Washington, Minnesota, and other states.
5. Electric Utilities Use Enormous Power to Resist
Imagine how typewriter companies felt upon the introduction of personal computers, how landline phone companies felt a decade ago. Electric utility executives are in a similar position, locked in an outdated paradigm and without a strategy for reaching a different future.
The key difference is that electric companies wield enormous market and political power over their system. They have publicly-sanctioned monopolies, and huge streams of monopoly-shielded revenue they use to hire lobbyists and lawyers to dominate state legislatures and utility commissions. Open Secrets tracks electric utility lobbying at the federal level and reports that utilities collectively spent $121 million on lobbying Congress in 2014, and an additional $16.5 million in contributions to legislators. Lobbying is even more intense at the state level, where most regulation takes place. For example, Florida's four largest utilities collectively employ one lobbyist for every two legislators in that state.
In nearly every fight to align the electricity system with the technological and economic opportunity—energy efficiency, renewable energy, net metering—utilities have pitted their resources squarely against progress.
Get to the Root Cause
The best analogy for today's battle for the electricity system might be the AT&T telephone monopoly. In the early years, users couldn't even connect third party devices to the telephone network and AT&T could wield its monopoly power to quash market or political competition. In the end, the government rightly recognized that breaking up the monopoly and introducing competition (for long distance service, at least) was the only way to reduce AT&T's economic and political power.
Electric utilities are right that distributed renewable energy like rooftop solar threatens their business model. But that model is increasingly out of step with the interests of the modern electricity customer, from energy efficiency to clean energy to energy management. States have papered over the inconsistencies with policies mandating renewable energy and energy efficiency—the utility leaders in renewable energy and energy efficiency almost all hail from states with the best policies—but only at great political cost and over the strident objection of utility companies.
The root cause of the battle between utilities and their (captive) customers is the utility monopoly. And the best hope for a democratic energy system may be to smash it.
Photo credit: Mike Fleming via Flickr (CC BY 2.0 license)
Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
Fwd: Solar Beats Gas in Colorado - Renewable Energy World
I know that you will all understand the significance of this first public notice of passing this milestone.
MB
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rebecca Van Nichols <rvan@tnag.net>
Date: Tue, Aug 25, 2015 at 1:41 AM
Subject: Solar Beats Gas in Colorado - Renewable Energy World
To: Monty <mbannerman@arcstarenergy.com>
From: Rebecca Van Nichols <rvan@tnag.net>
Date: Tue, Aug 25, 2015 at 1:41 AM
Subject: Solar Beats Gas in Colorado - Renewable Energy World
To: Monty <mbannerman@arcstarenergy.com>
Solar Beats Gas in Colorado
"For the first time, the company received bids for utility-scale solar PV resources that are cost-effective head to head with natural-gas fired generation," Public Service of Colorado said in the report.
August 21, 2015
SunEdison Inc., the biggest clean-energy developer, began construction on a Colorado solar farm that will be the largest in the state and comes out ahead in direct competition with natural gas.
The 156-megawatt Comanche solar farm will deliver power to Excel Energy Inc.'s Public Service of Colorado utility under a 25-year agreement, Maryland Heights, Missouri-based SunEdison said in a statement Thursday. The utility awarded the contract through an open solicitation, with the solar farm beating out other power sources including gas, SunEdison said.
The deal shows that renewable energy is increasingly able to compete on price with fossil fuels. Utilities that are planning for future demand growth are looking more carefully at solar panels and wind turbines, which will be cheaper to operate over the next few decades in part because they have no fuel costs, said Julie Blunden, chief strategy officer at SunEdison.
"We actually can offer solar and wind that's cheaper than gas," Blunden said in a phone interview Thursday. "It's such an important inflection point. We can sell power without any fuel-price risk."
State Policy
Buying power from Comanche will also help Public Service of Colorado meet state policies that require investor-owned utilities to get 30 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2020, according to the Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency, operated by North Carolina State University.
Public Service of Colorado told regulators in a 2013 report it had received proposals for solar photovoltaic power that was competitive with gas priced at $5.90 per million British thermal units over a 20-year period. Another project was competitive with gas at $5.96 over 25 years.
While the redacted report doesn't identify the solar farms, Blunden said Comanche was one of the power plants that received contracts through the 2013 solicitation process.
Natural gas for delivery on Friday to the Denver area was $2.55 per million British thermal units, according to data from Intercontinental Exchange Inc.
Rising demand as new gas plants come online over the next few years will likely increase that price. The utility's base gas forecast shows prices exceeding $6 by about 2020.
"For the first time, the company received bids for utility-scale solar PV resources that are cost-effective head to head with natural-gas fired generation," Public Service of Colorado said in the report.
©2015 Bloomberg News
Lead image: Solar Farm. Credit: Shutterstock.
Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
Monday, August 24, 2015
Brazil's energy agency EPE provides update on upcoming solar auction
Brazil's energy agency EPE provides update on upcoming solar auction
24.08.2015: Brazil’s energy agency Empresa de Pesquisa Energetica (EPE), part of the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME), has set new rules for the contracting of energy relating to the power generated by the PV plants that will be developed in the frame of the upcoming solar energy auction (Leilão de Reserva), which will be held on Aug. 28, 2015. Through the auction, Brazil’s energy regulator ANEEL will select exclusively solar projects. Projects selected in the auction, which must begin delivering power in August 2017, will sell their electricity output to the Brazilian grid under a 20-year PPA. © PHOTON
epe.gov.br/leiloes/Documents/Leil%C3%A3o%20de%20Reserva%20%282015%29/DEE-NT-079-2014-r1_UFV.pdf
Monty Bannerman
ArcStar Energy
+1-646-402-5076
www.arcstarenergy.com
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Saturday, August 22, 2015
BBC News: July Earth's hottest month on record
July Earth's hottest month on record
July was the hottest month on Earth since records began in 1880, according to US scientists.
Read more:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-34009289
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Sent from my mobile.
July was the hottest month on Earth since records began in 1880, according to US scientists.
Read more:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-34009289
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Sent from my mobile.
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Brazil PPAs from 2013 auction executed at $75.70/MWh and all-in costs of $1.62/Watt
20.08.2015: Brazilian developer Kroma Energia e Cone has signed a long-term PPA for a 50 MW PV project with the Ministry of Economy of the Brazilian state of Permanbuco. he project was selected by Pernambuco’s energy agency Recursos Hidricos e Energeticos (SRHE) in the frame of an auction for large-scale PV projects held in December 2013. The project, which has a required investment of 200 million BRL ($57.6 million), will be located in Flores, in the north of the state. This is the second PPA signed by local government for a PV project selected through the auction held in 2013. In April, Italian renewable energy developer Enel Green Power Spa, a subsidiary of the Enel Group, signed a PPA for a 11 MW PV plant it is developing in Tacaratu, in the desert of Itaparica. The project will be located close to an existing 80 MW wind power plant. Through the solar auction held in 2013, SRHE selected six PV projects totaling 122.8 MW. The six projects have a power range of 5 to 30 MW and require a global investment of 597 million BRL ($198.4 million). The auction ended with an average price of 228.63 BRL ($75.7) per MWh – the starting maximum price for the auction was 250 BRL per MWh. © PHOTON
Monty Bannerman
ArcStar Energy
+1-646-402-5076
www.arcstarenergy.com
Fwd: Bloomberg: Brazilian Senate Approves Bill Increasing Taxes for Companies
Monty Bannerman
ArcStar Energy
ArcStar Energy
From Bloomberg, Aug 19, 2015, 9:48:40 PM
Brazil's Senate passed a bill that would raise taxes on companies in the latest test for President Dilma Rousseff's embattled government.
To read the entire article, go to http://bloom.bg/1J65ptl
Sent from the Bloomberg iPad application. Download the free application at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bloomberg-for-ipad/id364304764?mt=8
Sent from a mobile device.
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Warehouse facility to fund acquisition, development and construction from their original Papa and the public market
19.08.2015: US renewable energy company SunEdison Inc. and West Street Infrastructure Partners III (WSIP), an infrastructure fund managed by Goldman Sachs, have formed a $1 billion construction and operating asset warehouse investment vehicle. According to SunEdison, WSIP have provided an equity commitment of $300 million. The warehouse investment vehicle, which is named WSIP Warehouse, will fund construction costs and acquire operating assets. »SunEdison's new $1 billion warehouse provides incremental capacity for SunEdison to construct and hold assets in advance of drop down to TerraForm Power,« said the company’s CEO Brian Wuebbels. In a separate development, SunEdison has launched a $650 million share offering. The company will offer 650,000 shares of 6.75% Series A perpetual convertible preferred stock at a price of $1,000 per share. The company expects to close the offering on August 21, 2015. SunEdison estimates that net proceeds from this offering will amount to $626.1 million. The company will use these funds for general corporate purposes, including funding working capital and growth initiative. © PHOTON
investors.sunedison.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=106680&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2080062
investors.sunedison.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=106680&p=irol-newsArticle_Print&ID=2080283
Monty Bannerman
ArcStar Energy
+1-646-402-5076
www.arcstarenergy.com
Friday, August 14, 2015
Sunedison announces Dominion partnership in 420 megawatt PV project
All-in $1.54/Watt AC including fees and panel tariffs.
14.08.2015: US-based Sunedison, Inc. announced they have signed a definitive agreement with Dominion, producers and transporters of energy, establishing a joint venture for Four Brothers, a 420 megawatt solar project in Utah, USA, developed by Sunedison. The project is now under construction and fully financed with an expected commercial operation date of mid-2016. The Four Brothers project is contracted under long-term power purchase agreements for 20 years with PacifiCorp (A-/A3), a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy. Dominion will invest approximately $500 million to acquire 50 percent of the cash equity and 99 percent of the tax equity in Four Brothers, including funding of construction. Sunedison will contribute the remaining portion of the capital required to complete the project, which it has fully financed through a $150 million four-year term loan with Deutsche Bank. The total $650 million financing package fully funds the project for completion and long-term ownership. © PHOTON
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Fwd: U.S. Distributed Solar Prices Fell 10 to 20% in 2014
This source tracks published prices, not discounted actual sale prices which are not shared. Either way, the percent decline is still valid.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rebecca Van Nichols <rvan@tnag.net>
Date: Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Subject: U.S. Distributed Solar Prices Fell 10 to 20% in 2014
To: mbannerman@arcstarenergy.com
The installed price of distributed solar photovoltaic power systems in the United States continues to fall precipitously. This is according to the latest edition of Tracking the Sun, an annual PV cost tracking report produced by the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Image credit: Berkeley LabADVERTISEMENT
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rebecca Van Nichols <rvan@tnag.net>
Date: Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Subject: U.S. Distributed Solar Prices Fell 10 to 20% in 2014
To: mbannerman@arcstarenergy.com
U.S. Distributed Solar Prices Fell 10 to 20% in 2014
Wed, 08/12/2015 - 2:13pm
DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
The installed price of distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) power systems in the United States continues to fall precipitously.
This is according to the latest edition of Tracking the Sun, an annual PV cost tracking report produced by the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).
The installed price of distributed solar photovoltaic power systems in the United States continues to fall precipitously. This is according to the latest edition of Tracking the Sun, an annual PV cost tracking report produced by the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Image credit: Berkeley LabInstalled prices for residential and small non-residential systems completed in 2014 were $0.40-per-watt (W) lower, and prices for large non-residential systems were $0.70/W lower, than in the prior year.
"This marked the fifth consecutive year of significant price reductions for distributed PV systems in the U.S.," notes Galen Barbose of Berkeley Lab's Electricity Markets and Policy Group, the report's lead author.
Within the first six months of 2015, installed prices within a number of large state markets fell by an additional $0.20 to $0.50/W, or 6 to 13 percent, maintaining the steady pace of solar price declines in recent years.
The continued decline in PV system pricing is especially noteworthy given the relatively stable price of PV modules since 2012. The report attributes recent system price declines, instead, to reductions in solar "soft" costs.
These include such things as marketing and customer acquisition, system design, installation labor, and permitting and inspections. Attention in the industry has homed-in on soft costs, and the report suggests that these efforts are partly responsible for recent price declines.
The report also highlights the tremendous variability in PV system pricing. Among residential systems installed in 2014, for example, 20 percent sold for less than $3.50/W, while another 20 percent sold for more than $5.30/W. Similar variability exists among non-residential systems as well.
As Berkeley Lab's Naïm Darghouth, another of the report's authors explains, "This variability reflects a host of factors: differences in system design and component selection, market and regulatory conditions, and installer characteristics, to name a few."
Comparing across installers in a number of large state markets, the report finds substantial heterogeneity in pricing, and suggests that "low-price leaders" in these states can serve as a benchmark for installed price reductions that could be achieved more broadly.
In Arizona, for example, 20 percent of residential installers had median prices at or below $3.00/W in 2014, compared to the median price of $4.30/W across all U.S. residential systems in 2014.
The report examines various other drivers for PV system prices, such as system size, the state in which the system is installed, whether it is owned by the site host or a third party, whether it is installed in new construction or on existing buildings, whether the site host is a for-profit commercial or tax-exempt entity, the module efficiency level, whether the system uses a microinverter or a standard string inverter, and whether the system is installed on a rooftop or is ground-mounted, either with or without tracking.
To varying degrees, these many factors are all found to impact PV system prices. As Barbose stresses, "The fact that such variability exists underscores the need for caution and specificity when referring to the installed price of PV, as clearly there is no single 'price' that uniformly and without qualification characterizes the U.S. market, or even particular market segments, as a whole."
The report, Tracking the Sun VIII: The Installed Price of Residential and Non-Residential Photovoltaic Systems in the United States, is the eighth edition in Berkeley Lab's Tracking the Sun report series. It is based on data collected from more than 400,000 residential and non-residential PV systems installed between 1998 and 2014 across 42 states, representing more than 80 percent of all distributed PV capacity installed in the United States.
The report is produced in conjunction with a number of other related and ongoing research activities at Berkeley Lab and at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory that collectively analyze trends in PV system pricing.
The latest edition of Tracking the Sun, along with a summary slide deck and data file, may be downloaded at trackingthesun.lbl.gov.
A webinar presentation of key findings will be conducted on Wednesday, August 19th at 11:00 am Pacific Time.
The research was supported by funding from the U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative. The SunShot Initiative is a collaborative national effort that aggressively drives innovation to make solar energy fully cost-competitive with traditional energy sources before the end of the decade. Through SunShot, DOE supports efforts by private companies, universities, and national laboratories to drive down the cost of solar electricity to $0.06 per kilowatt-hour. Learn more at energy.gov/sunshot.
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