Colorado Springs Solar gardens project draws competition

More than a month after Colorado Springs City Council voted in favor of a plan that would double the scope of the city’s community solar garden program, 10 contractors expressed interest in doing business in the local market. During a mandatory pre-proposal conference held by Colorado Springs Utilities last week, the 10 companies — half based in Colorado and the rest with headquarters in five other states — conveyed their interest in the contract, were briefed on the terms and were able to ask technical questions about the expansion. The project was approved by City Council in a 6-to-3 vote Aug. 14 after members rescinded the previous Council’s approval of a 10-megawatt expansion in April. Council passed the buck for the planned 2-megawatt expansion to Utilities’ customers at the rate of about 50 cents per year for the next 20 years. Council passed the buck for the planned 2-megawatt expansion to Utilities’ customers at the rate of about 50 cents per year for the next 20 years, according to Utilities’ request for proposals published in early September. “That figure has not changed,” said Utilities spokesman Dave Grossman. “Fifty cents a year is the average cost for each of our 189,000 residential electric customers. The program’s average cost per year for commercial and industrial customers would be higher since their bills are higher, on average, than those of residential customers. We have a total of 215,000 electric customers.” The deadline for bid proposals is Oct. 1, and Utilities said that they hope to award the contract in mid-October and complete the project within one year. The location of the systems included in the contract is up to the discretion of the developer, but must be within what Utilities calls its “certified electric service territory,” according to the RFP. The document also states that one or more developers will be awarded the bid depending on qualifications and minimization of risk. “Utilities is one of the largest four-service (electric, natural gas, water, waste-water treatment) municipal utility services in the nation and the second largest electric system in the state of Colorado,” according to CSU’s documents. “Being a municipal utility means that customers are the owners. Utilities is governed by the City Council for the City of Colorado Springs, which also acts as the Utilities Board.” Because only companies in attendance — physically or electronically — at the pre-proposal meeting are permitted to vie for the bid, the following 10 companies are in the running: SunShare is a Colorado Springs-based solar energy startup owned by Colorado College graduate David Amster-Olszewski. SunShare built and operates two community solar gardens in Utilities’ pilot program: one at Venetucci Farm and the other at Christa McAuliffe Elementary School. Clean Energy Collective is a Springs-based solar energy firm that is member owned and builds, operates and maintains clean energy facilities at a community level — specializing in community solar gardens. CEC has completed projects in Colorado, Minnesota and Vermont. El Paso Green Energies is a family-owned and -operated business based in Colorado Springs whose personnel are certified by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners and works primarily in the Colorado market. Solar Power Financial is based in Boulder. This company develops and finances renewable energy and real estate projects as a consultant both in the United States and foreign markets. SPF has worked primarily in the Colorado, Hawaii and Mexico markets. Custom Solar is a renewable energy design and construction firm that is also based in Boulder. The Colorado company provides solar electric, solar thermal and green engineering solutions for residential and commercial clients throughout the state, according to CustomSolar.com. Ecoplexus Solar Solutions is a development, design, engineering, construction and financing contractor based in San Francisco that specializes in solar systems for commercial, municipal, nonprofit and utility markets both nationally and internationally. Some of Ecoplexus’ recent projects were in Colorado, Georgia and California. Affordable Solar is based in Albuquerque and specializes in all things solar, with more than 14 years of experience in the field, according to Affordable-Solar.com. The company also says on its website that it can “design and distribute renewable energy systems for residential, commercial and industrial use domestically and internationally.” Cornwell Group is headquartered in Kapolei, Hawaii, with a location in downtown Colorado Springs and is a strategic management firm that provides consulting, data research and analysis to clientele worldwide, according to CornwellGroup.com. Cascade Renewable Energy is a Grand Rapids, Mich., company with expertise in design, installation, program management and quality/safety assurance pertaining to such renewable energy operations as wind farms and solar systems, according to CascadeRenewableEnergy.com. HelioSage Energy is headquartered in Charlottesville, Va., and focuses specifically on solar energy project development. The firm has worked in 15 states since its inception in 2008 and “has been responsible for the construction of over 400 megawatts of renewable energy projects,” according to HelioSage.com. The only companies who were physically present at the meeting were representatives from SunShare and El Paso Green Energies — spokespersons from the remaining eight companies attended electronically. Original plans for the program’s expansion would have cost Utilities customers a 20-year total of nearly $22 million, according to earlier estimates, but that figure shrank along with the size and scope of the program. After the expansion is complete, customers within Utilities’ certified service area will have the option to purchase panel space — with a maximum customer benefit of roughly 13 cents/kilowatt hour. The community solar garden pilot program was launched by Utilities in September 2011, and is currently fully subscribed with around 400 customers. It features only three solar gardens – SunShare operates two and the Air Force Academy operates one – that make up a total power availability of 1.5 megawatts, and Utilities says a fourth is currently being completed to build the 2-megawatt pilot program. “Utilities was one of the first municipal utilities in the nation, working with the local solar industry, to offer a CSG option to its customers through a pilot CSG program,” according to the RFP. “Customers began receiving electric bill credits on their electricity bills in February 2012.” The concept of community solar gardens in Colorado Springs was spurred by state legislation that requires utilities to obtain 20 percent of their electricity from renewables. However, as a municipal utility, CSU is exempt but says they aim to meet that standard.

Xcel Energy Says Wind and Solar is Cheaper Than Natural Gas

Well, there goes the myth that cheap shale gas would price renewables out of the US electricity market. Xcel Energy, one of the country’s biggest utilities, has just announced a planned major expansion of its solar and wind investments – because they are “cheaper and more reliable” than natural gas. In a filing to the public utilities commission in the state of Colorado, Xcel Energy requested permission to include 170MW of new, utility-scale solar capacity and 450MW of wind energy capacity in the state. The reason, Xcel Energy said, was not to meet renewable energy targets (which in Colorado happen to be 30 per cent by 2020), but because these technologies were best placed to fill basic generation needs. Solar and wind, it said, were competitive with the cost of gas-fired generation. “Based on generation needs, the most reliable and most cost-effective resources happen to be solar and wind,” Xcel Energy spokeswoman Michelle Aguayo told the online publication SRN. “We are not taking on solar because we have to, but because it is cost-effective and economical.” A lot has been written about the shale gas boom in the US and its apparent impact on other technologies, particularly renewables such as wind and solar. But its principal victims in the short term appear to be coal-fired generation and nuclear, with neither able to compete on cost – particularly with the additional burden of emissions and/or safety regulations. Part of Xcel Energy’s plan out to 2018 include the closure of a 108MW coal facility and the switching of another to natural gas. Wind is now priced at less than $50/MWh in the US, and the proposed build out of wind will take Xcel’s total wind capacity to 2,650MW – nearly equivalent to Australia’s entire capacity. In an earlier filing, Xcel Energy had wanted to install 550MW of wind capacity, but the PUC only allowed 200MW because it was not sure it would be cost-effective. Excel insisted it would be, and is now pushing for the allowance to be lifted to 450MW. The cost of utility-scale solar is also falling fast. A recent auction in Palo Alto saw the local utility contract 80MW of utility-scale solar at a price of just under $70/MWh, and public utilities have recently contracted large-scale projects at around $90/MWh. The prevailing market price in that market is about $100/MWh. Xcel Energy already has 80MW of utility-scale solar and 160MW of rooftop solar from residential customers. It is now seeing utility-scale solar coming down – and from Xcel’s point of view – building large-scale solar, with single-axis tracking, would be a much cheaper option than rooftop solar. “For the first time ever, we are adding cost competitive utility-scale solar to the system,” said David Eves, the head of an Xcel subsidiary that deals with regulatory matters. “The 170 MW we recommend would triple Xcel Energy’s current utility-scale solar in Colorado and it equates to all of the customer-sited solar in the state of Colorado, at about one half of the cost.” It recommends around 42.5MW of additional rooftop solar. As John Farrell, from the Institute of Energy Self Reliance, writes in a blog on the same subject, even rooftop solar is meeting peak demand in the state of Colorado, at less than half the cost of peaking gas plant. “Solar not only meets this peak need at a lower per kilowatt-hour cost, but also without the harmful emissions from running a power plant on standby (or fracking its fuel out of the ground),” he writes. “What’s important to keep in mind when talking about solar and electricity prices is that solar energy production tends to align very well with the highest energy demand on a utility’s system. “It doesn’t have to be cheaper than a nuclear power plant built in 1965, it just has to be cheaper than the next kilowatt-hour the utility needs at 4pm on a hot, July afternoon. For many utilities (like Xcel, one of the 10 biggest in the US), it is. For many others, it will be soon, without subsidies. “And don’t forget, utilities buy power plants for 30, 40, or 50 years. With costs dropping by 10% per year, if solar power’s not cheaper now, it will be long before a new fossil fuel power plant is paid off.” Farrell also makes another point about the move by Xcel to embrace utility-scale solar: they are in fact competing with their own customers, because as more consumers add rooftop solar, that means lower revenues for the utilities. This is especially relevant in Colorado, where the community in Boulder (currently being hit by “biblical floods) has been trying to “break away” and establish its own municipal utility, on the basis that it can provide cheaper and greener electricity than a centralized utility. “Xcel’s Colorado plans suggest the utility is wising up, and that the era of customer-owned solar only lasts as long as people are willing to raise holy hell or legislatures are willing to tell them to do the right thing,” O’Farrell writes. “So the utility shift to solar is both bad and good. The bad news is that locally owned solar pours piles of cash into local economies, and utility-owned solar is going to suck it right back out again. The good is that even an anachronistic, monopoly utility can figure out the financial advantages to clean energy, and we need a lot of it to save the climate.” “Game on.”

Xcel Energy Counters Critics With Proposal For 170 MW Of New Solar

Colorado utility Xcel Energy is proposing to add new solar and wind energy resources to meet the state's future electricity needs, according to a report filed with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC). Xcel's recommendations include 170 MW of new utility-scale solar power, 450 MW of new wind power and 317 MW of natural gas generation that it says would provide operational flexibility the utility needs to reliably integrate renewable resources into its electric supply mix. "This request will add significant amounts of wind and solar energy to the system at the right price, and it makes good sense for our customers and the environment," says David Eves, president and CEO of Public Service Co., an Xcel Energy company. "For the first time ever, we are adding cost-competitive utility-scale solar to the system. The 170 megawatts we recommend would triple Xcel Energy’s current utility-scale solar in Colorado, and it equates to all of the customer-sited solar in the state of Colorado, at about one half of the cost." Xcel Energy’s announcement is in addition to 42.5 MW of on-site solar that the company has proposed through separate proceedings with the PUC, under the 2014 Renewable Energy Standard compliance plan. That proposal recently was sent to an administrative law judge with the PUC for further regulatory action. Xcel Energy has been under intense criticism from solar sector advocates as its recent proposals filed with the PUC also includes a request to re-evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the state's NEM policies. The utility maintains that some costs of NEM are unfairly shouldered by non-solar ratepayers, while critics, including the Vote Solar Initiative, say Xcel's analysis is flawed and NEM actually lowers grid costs. "This plan demonstrates the right way to advance clean energy because it keeps the focus on customer costs," says Ben Fowke, chairman, president and CEO of Xcel Energy. "We have a clear track record of implementing clean energy projects that create significant customer value and keep rates affordable. This plan continues that effort, and we are positioned to take advantage of very favorable pricing for some great projects." Details of the Xcel Energy proposal include the following: The addition of 170 MW of utility-scale solar generation would use single-axis tracking to maximize solar generation during the day. The company currently has about 80 MW of utility-scale solar and 160 MW of customer-sited solar generation; The addition of 450 MW of wind generation is an adjustment from the 550 MW the company initially recommended early this summer after its early wind request for proposal. This additional wind would bring the installed capacity on the company’s system in Colorado to 2.65 GW; and The proposed 317 MW of natural gas-fired generation would come from existing Colorado power plants that previously supplied Xcel Energy but would do so going forward at reduced prices. The company says this "flexible generation" allows it to start, bring up and turn down generation online in relatively short periods of time as wind and solar generation vary throughout the day. Xcel Energy’s proposal must be reviewed by an independent evaluator for the PUC and ultimately considered by the commission, which is scheduled to approve the plan as filed or make amendments to the proposal by Dec. 9, 2013.

Study: Colorado Solar Customers Deliver $11 M in Annual Benefits to Xcel Energy Grid

The Vote Solar Initiative (Vote Solar) today released new study findings indicating that distributed solar energy systems currently in the Xcel service area deliver as much as $11 million in annual benefits to Colorado ratepayers. The findings were submitted to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) in opposition to a study from Xcel Energy that could be used to weaken one of the state’s most important solar policies, net metering. More than 17,000 Coloradans have urged regulators to reject the Xcel proposal and defend consumer solar rights. Released in July as part of the utility’s 2014 Renewable Energy Standard compliance plan, the Xcel proposal takes aim at net metering, a policy that encourages consumer investment in solar power. The utility used a cost and benefit study of its own design that had not yet undergone public or commission review to make its case against the successful solar policy. In today’s comments, advocates stressed that the Xcel study and subsequent proposal do not fairly account for the many benefits that rooftop solar delivers to Coloradans. “Xcel has significantly undervalued solar power from its customers and we are determined not to let their incomplete math be used to dismantle the most important rooftop solar energy policy on the books. While we understand that rooftop solar represents a change from the utility’s traditional way of doing business, it’s clear that Coloradans want that change. We encourage the Commission to look closely at the serious flaws in Xcel’s approach to assessing the impacts of this policy,” said Annie Lappé, solar policy director at Vote Solar. "Net metering is key to keeping Colorado homes and businesses going solar, reaching the state’s Million Solar Roofs goal, and revamping our antiquated energy system,” said Edward Stern, executive director of the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association (COSEIA), a joint party to the PUC proceeding. “Xcel’s current proposal clearly falls well short of accounting for rooftop solar’s tremendous value to Colorado. If we're going to have a conversation about net metering, we need to make sure we're using good, updated, accurate information that ensures a fair deal for our state’s solar customers.” "Xcel created this study without adequate input from the Technical Review Committee (TRC) of industry experts that was mandated by the Colorado PUC," said Meghan Nutting, a Colorado resident, TRC member and member of The Alliance for Solar Choice (TASC). "This lack of best practices is exacerbated by the fact that the study uses non-current data from as far back as three years ago, and cites outdated studies, the most recent of which was completed more than four years ago." “Solar has become an affordable option for Colorado families, schools and businesses who want more control over their electricity supply and power bills. That is why we saw such a massive outpouring of opposition to the Xcel proposal,” said Nellis Kennedy-Howard, senior campaign representative, Sierra Club. “Xcel should be working with the PUC and stakeholders to support what the public wants and what’s good for the state’s economy and environment: more local solar power.” The new study, commissioned by Vote Solar and undertaken by Crossborder Energy, uses a Commission-approved methodology to assess the overall impacts of net metering in Xcel Energy’s Colorado territory. It finds that the financial benefits of net metered power outweigh the costs, with a total net value of between $7 and $11 million per year, depending on the price of natural gas, and the future cost of greenhouse gas regulations. Benefits include: savings on expensive and polluting conventional power; reduced investments in transmission and distribution infrastructure; reduced electricity lost during transportation over power lines, as net metered solar's surplus energy flows to the grid and is consumed locally; and savings on the cost of meeting carbon reduction and renewable energy goals. In addition to grid benefits, distributed solar is delivering economic, environmental and public health benefits to Xcel’s solar and non-solar customers alike. Colorado now ranks 5th in the country for the amount of solar installed with enough to power 50,500 homes. There are 275 solar companies employing 3,600 Coloradans throughout the state. In 2012, $187 million was invested in Colorado to install solar on homes and businesses. Groups opposing the Xcel net metering proposal include: Advanced Energy Economy, Clean Energy Action, Clean Power Finance, COSEIA, Dynamic Integration, EnergyShouldBe.org, Environment Colorado, Five Star Consultants, Go Green Electric, Namaste Solar, Real Goods Solar, SEIA, Sierra Club, SolarCity, Sunrun, TASC, Verengo Solar and Vote Solar. About net metering: Like rollover minutes on a cell phone bill, net metering gives solar customers full credit on their utility bills for the excess clean power they contribute to the grid. In place in 43 states, this simple crediting arrangement is one of the most important state policies for enabling Americans to generate their own power from solar and other renewable energy resources. Learn more at: www.protectnetmetering.org About Vote Solar: The Vote Solar Initiative is a non-profit grassroots organization working to foster economic opportunity, promote energy independence and address climate change by making solar a mainstream energy resource across the United States. Since 2002, Vote Solar has engaged at the state, local and federal levels to remove regulatory barriers and implement the key policies needed to bring solar to scale.

Multinational Corporation Real Goods Solar acquires Syndicated Solar

Real Goods Solar Inc., a Louisville-based installer of solar energy systems, has completed the acquisition of Denver-based Syndicated Solar Inc. to grow its residential market, officials announced Monday. Syndicated Solar has three regional offices in Grand Junction, Missouri and California. Syndicated Solar's efficient sales processes and integrated software tools allowed the company to rapidly grow in the residential sector, officials said in a news release. The company brought in revenues of $2.5 million in 2011 and $7.3 million in 2012 and is expected to double revenue year-over-year in 2013. Real Goods Solar (Nasdaq: RSOL) paid $2.5 million and issued 400,000 shares of its unregistered Class A common stock with the potential for the seller to earn up to $250,000 at the close of the 2013 fiscal year and an additional 1.3 million shares of unregistered Class A common stock over the next two and a half years. Over the next few months, Syndicated Solar is expected to be fully integrated into Real Goods Solar's residential division, officials said. The acquisition will add more than 40 employees to Real Goods Solar, including Justin Pentelute, Syndicated Solar's founder and CEO. Real Goods Solar on Friday also agreed to acquire Mercury Solar Systems in an effort to build its East Coast business. Real Goods Solar plans to issue 7.9 million shares of its Class A common stock for the Port Chester, N.Y.-based Mercury. Based on Real Goods Solar's $2.29 closing price Friday, the deal would be valued at more than $18 million. Mercury, founded in 2008, posted $35 million in revenue in 2012 and has cumulative revenue of $250 million, Real Goods Solar officials said. Under the terms of the transaction -- which is subject to shareholder and regulatory approval -- Mercury's workforce of more than 50 people would join Real Goods Solar as would three of its executives, including company co-founder Jared Haines, officials said.