Tessera Solar confident in 200-MW Colo. project
Platts Electric Power Daily : September 14 2009
By Ethan Howland
In a state so far largely ignored by utility-scale solar developers, Tessera Solar is developing a 200-MW solar plant near Saguache, Colorado.
Tessera, based in Houston, has offered to sell power from the project to Xcel Energy, which earlier this year issued requests for proposals for roughly 1,000 MW of renewable energy to serve its Colorado customers. The Colorado Public Utilities Commission is expected to vote on the RFP results in November, which will clear the way for the utility to enter into final contract negotiations with developers like Tessera.
Tessera believes it can move ahead with its $500 million to $600 million project even if it is not selected by Xcel, said Richard Knox, Tessera project permitting director. Tri-State Generation & Transmission Association, a wholesale cooperative based in Westminster, Colorado, and the Western Area Power Administration, are potential customers for the power, Knox said.
Tessera believes its project is ideal for its location in south-central Colorado, in part because it will use little water, Knox said. The project will use SunCatcher technology, developed by the company’s sister business, Stirling Energy Systems.
Stirling’s SunCatcher technology includes a 25-kW solar dish that tracks the sun and focuses solar energy onto a power conversion unit that generates electricity using a Stirling engine. The technology has a 31.25% sun-to-grid electricity conversion rate, the highest achieved by any solar technology, according to the company. Also, the technology does not use water, which gives it cost, siting and regulatory advantages over other technologies, according to the company.
In 2008, NTR, a renewable developer based in Dublin, Ireland, took a majority interest in Stirling by investing $100 million in the company. Stirling then split out its development operations into Tessera.
The Saguache project would also be sited on about 1,500 acres near an existing 230-kV line that has 200 MW of available capacity, Knox said.
The San Luis Valley where Tessera’s project would be located is one of Colorado’s best solar resources. But the lack of water and its high elevation, which reduces turbine efficiency, make Tessera’s SunCatcher system and photovoltaic systems the only viable solar technology for the area, Knox said.
This fall, Tessera expects to make an initial permit application filing with Saguache County for the solar project, Knox said. The developer may need to start the federal environmental review process as well, which could take roughly 18 months to finish, depending on the degree of review, he said.
Tessera has three other major projects in the permitting phase as well as a 1.5-MW demonstration project being built in Peoria, Arizona.
In California, Tessera plans to sell power from a 850-MW project near Barstow, California, to Southern California Edison under a 20-year contract. The California Energy Commission is reviewing the company’s application and plans to make a decision by the end of the year. If approved, the project could be completed in 2014, although power will be able to be delivered as the project is being built, according to the CEC.
The CEC is also reviewing Tessera’s proposal to build a 750-MW plant near El Centro, California, with the output under contract to San Diego Gas & Electric. The plant could be expanded to 900 MW.
In Texas, Tessera has a 20-year contract to sell CPS Energy, the San Antonio municipal utility, the output from a 27-MW project in West Texas, with construction expected to begin in mid-2010.
Meanwhile in Colorado, Xcel’s RFP for renewable resources drew strong interest, according to an update the utility gave to the PUC last month. The utility received 28 bids totaling 2,150 MW for solar thermal and photovoltaic resources. It received eight bids totaling 1,250 MW for solar resources with energy storage or natural gas-fired backup.
Despite the interest in the RFP, the Bureau of Land Management’s Colorado office has received no applications for solar projects on federal land, said Venessa Delgado, a BLM spokeswoman. The BLM is reviewing scores of solar applications in states like California and Nevada.
Like other developers, Tessera is responding to RFPs around the Southwest. Earlier this year, the company proposed a project to the Imperial Irrigation District in California, which is seeking renewable resources. The company, however, did not make IID’s short-list for bidders released in early July.