Posted on 01/16/2021 6:33:46 PM PST by george76
Xcel Energy wants to stop buying electricity from the world’s largest high-concentration solar energy plant, located in the San Luis Valley, and it will pay $41 million to the federal government to do it.
The utility company has been purchasing power from the 30-megawatt solar plant in southern Colorado since 2012, when the federally backed project was one of the first of its kind and the largest using the technology anywhere.
But parts on the solar farm have been starting to fail and there are no ready replacements — and the project’s owner, Kepco Solar of Alamosa LLC, tells Xcel Energy it’s becoming increasing difficult and expensive to maintain. Getting out of the power-purchase agreement, which runs through 2022, will save Xcel Energy customers millions over the next 11 years, the company says.
Xcel Energy (Nasdaq: XEL) and Kepco Solar struck an agreement to end the power purchase contract, and they proposed to state utility regulators that Xcel pay $41 million to the U.S. Department of Energy in an early termination fee.
Xcel Energy is the only buyer of the plant’s power, so ending the power purchase agreement would likely spell the end of the experimental, industrial-scale solar technology there. It echoes what’s happened with similar projects based on the once-promising technology.
The utility company “does not take the early termination of a power purchase agreement lightly and understands that pursuing innovative technologies and fostering opportunities for the development of such technologies will be key to a low-to-no carbon and reduced greenhouse gas emissions future,” said Brooke Trammell, Xcel Energy regional vice president of regulatory affairs, in an affidavit to state regulators.
But the solar project is not panning out, and the termination agreement will save Xcel Energy rate-payers $38 million in the long-run, Trammell’s testimony says.
The solar plant was initially backed by a $90.6 million U.S. Department of Energy loan.
It was built by Charlotte, North Carolina-based Cogentrix Energy LLC and later sold to Kepco Solar of Alamosa.
The solar plant features panels attached to hydraulic motors to tilt and rotate the special solar cells and have them follow the sun’s path across the sky each day. A layer of optical material concentrates sun rays, and the solar cells contain a variety of semiconductor materials, catching different light frequencies.
The technology was expected to produce twice as much electricity of a similar-sized solar plant using traditional photovoltaic panels.
When it opened, the DOE projected the 75,000 megawatt hours of electricity it would generate annually as enough to power over 6,500 homes.
The power generation worked, but now the failure of aging hardware is a problem, Xcel said.
The manufacturer for some of the technology no longer exists, and Kepco cannot find a cost-effective way to have replacement parts made, Xcel said in a regulatory filing. Kepco also says it’s not commercially viable to “repower” the site by installing new, traditional solar panels there — the financial investment is too great.
Instead, Xcel Energy seeks to spread the cost of the termination fee payment over 11 years.
The power contract with Kepco would cost Xcel and its customers $121.4 million through the remainder of its term, Xcel says.
Paying the termination fee and buying replacement solar energy from other projects would save Xcel customers $38 million, the utility argues.
The Colorado Public Utilities Commission has scheduled an April hearing before an administrative law judge about Xcel’s request and to double-check the financial calculations.
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Colorado Ping ( Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)
I really wish they’d put nuke plants here in Colorado.
Thanks, Xcel. How much will the increase in rates be this year?
Lefties dream about intermittent, not reliable electrical production that does not work when the wind does not blow ( or blows too hard ) and when the sun is not shining..
Solar cells are 18% efficient in using photons to drive electrons through a wire.
Breakeven point is 11 years.
The things are virtually dead after 20 years.
Sounds like a great Gumm’nt project to me.
There is limited benefit of solar power. You could install solar panels on your roof and over 20 years it would save you costs on your electric bill. That’s about it, from what I understand? Industrial stage, our technology is not there yet.
Then why do they keep running TV ads bragging about how they’re going to go full-solar and carbon free?
Another monopoly running a government protected racketeering scheme to fleece the masses.
Where is Solyndra when they are needed!
Having lived off grid on solar,... it’s the batteries. Great technology for remote locations. But truthfully, it is both expensive and dirty. Nobody in their right mind would use it for large scale power generation. Not even close to as clean as modern coal power generation.
> The power contract with Kepco would cost Xcel and its customers $121.4 million through the remainder of its term, Xcel says. Paying the termination fee and buying replacement solar energy from other projects would save Xcel customers $38 million, the utility argues.
In other words, the power costs about 3x as much as from some other source. Who wouldn’t want that?
It didn’t take long for these obscene wind and solar farms to be a regurgitated liberal utopia and scam to come to an end.
Exactly!
Flipping Solyndra didn’t work when oil was an obamian $110 a barrel, so it, the technology, is going to fare better when oil is 50 bucks???
Getting out of the power-purchase agreement, which runs through 2022, will save Xcel Energy customers millions over the next 11 years, the company says.
Promising?
It doesn't work. It's never worked. And now, under the Kamala admin, we'll be pumping billions of more dollars into this black hole.
In PA they have replaced most of the coal fired plants with gas. TMI nuke plant shut down. There is now little redundancy or diversity of energy source. With coal fired at least there was reserve coal supply stored on site in hopper cars or piles. If a gas source is lost due to catastrophic pipe line failure etc the plant will be down immediately. Gas energy supply is just in time.
And now the gov of New Mexico is saying she will increase our dependency on solar power.
She and the ‘greenies’ in the state house!
Dare say our electric bills will increase.
They are paying 41 mil to save 38 mil?
Am I missing something?
Cogentrix (original builder) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Goldman Sachs group whose PAC was a top donator to Obama in 2008 and 2009. Hmm....
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