NTR-Backed Tessera Inks 20-Year Solar PPA With CPS Energy
New Energy Finance : June 23 2009
Developer Tessera Solar has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with Texas utility CPS Energy for the output from a proposed 27MW project that would employ Stirling Energy Systems devices. The Western Ranch solar project aims to utilise 1,080 of Stirling’s modular 25kW SunCatcher power systems to provide power for CPS customers in San Antonio. Each system employs a dish-shaped array of mirrors to concentrate solar energy on a central focal point - a Stirling engine - to generate intense heat, which drives the machine and produces electricity. Both Tessera and Stirling are backed by Irish public and environmental infrastructure developer NTR, which announced the PPA.
Tessera expects to break ground in summer 2010 and begin commissioning units by the end of the year, assuming timely regulatory approvals, NTR said in a press release. NTR invested USD 100m in Tessera and Stirling in March 2008. The agreement with CPS is the first signed by Tessera since receiving that investment last year.
Western Ranch will be the first project developed by Tessera in Texas and will complement two other projects the company is developing in California’s Imperial Valley and Mojave Desert.
Stirling’s Solar One project, located in the Mojave of San Bernardino County, would utilise 20,000 SunCatcher units in its first phase to generate 500MW of power. A planned second phase would ramp capacity to 850MW using 34,000 dishes. Utility Southern California Edison has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement for the project’s output.
Stirling’s Solar Two project, located near El Centro in Imperial Valley, would utilise 12,000 modules for a 300MW nameplate capacity. A second 600MW phase has also been proposed, and utility San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) has agreed to purchase up to the full 900MW generated by the project. Phase two is scheduled to run on SD&E’s Sunrise Powerlink, a controversial USD 1.9bn transmission network that was approved by the California Public Utilities Commission in December 2008.
In December 2008, Stirling filed plans with the California Energy Commission and the Bureau of Land Management to build Solar One. Construction is expected to begin in 2010, following an estimated 12-18 month long approval process. In June 2008, Stirling submitted Solar Two’s application for certification to the Commission, which was deemed data adequate four months later. Solar Two is expected to undergo at least a year’s worth or review following that notification, meaning ground will not be broken until at least summer 2010.
NEF “FIRST TAKE”: Tessera’s Texas project could be one of the first STEG projects to break ground in the US since Nevada Solar One, courtesy of its modular generation system and the relative ease of project permission in Texas as opposed to the more heavily regulated energy markets further to the West. Tessera is well-funded by backer NTR, and the industry will watch closely to see how quickly its development team and its technology manufacturer, fellow NTR portfolio company Stirling Energy Systems, can deploy a system that potentially exploits both the Department of Energy loan guarantee programme and the Treasury’s 30% investment grant.