This article excerpt is taken from the newly released November/December issue of Renewable Energy Focus magazine. To register to receive a digital copy click here.
Manufacturing of solar cells and panels has reduced in the
United States, but some firms have found success by shifting
their focus onto building utility scale power plants. Indeed,
the shift has provided the landscape and scope for the
construction of the world’s largest utility scale power plant in
California’s hot, dry Antelope Valley outside Los Angeles. The
power plant is owned by investment firm Berkshire Hathaway’s
MidAmerican Renewables and is being built by
SunPower, San Jose, California.
In fact, dozens of projects from 10 MW to nearly 600 MW are
dotting this immense basin between the Tehachapi and San Gabriel
mountains. The development represents a trend throughout the
entire United States, as more manufacturing operations go
“under water” (where production and operational costs have
exceeded revenues) and ambitious plans for new ones get
cancelled (i.e. First Solar has vacated a $300
million panel plant in Mesa, Arizona, and GE
recently scrapped plans for a Colorado facility.)The sky’s the
limit: In recent times PV at Utility scale has been the order of
the day for many PV project developers.
M+W Group, the Germany-based construction firm
that built First Solar’s Mesa facility, told Renewable
Energy Focus magazine that solar remains a major business
driver. However, the company has recalibrated its motions away
from upstream manufacturing facilities to downstream utility
scale power plants. This is primarily because of a capacity
glut.
“The Chinese invested so heavily in solar manufacturing
capacity that it drove a lot of players out of business,” said
James Ellington, M+W U.S. executive vice president for advanced
technology infrastructure. “The incentives and demand for
utility-scale power plants are much stronger at the moment than
the need for increased manufacturing capacity of cells and
panels.”
Building utility scale power plants has added some sense of
maturity to the industry, and SunPower’s share price is up 27
per cent on the year as activity in Antelope Valley has been
ramped up. MidAmerican Solar and
SunPower have begun major construction at the Solar
Star Power plants, co-located and totalling 579MW of (AC)
generation capacity. Berkshire Hathaway bought the projects
earlier this year for in excess of US$2 billion.
As utility scale construction takes hold more and more,
companies like SunPower are increasingly placing the emphasis on
engineer, procure, construct (EPC) services.
But with this focus comes additional pressures. Environmental
concerns are key for example. So how does this manifest itself
to a company that wants to build at utility scale? And what more
needs to be done?
“These sites consist of several square miles, they’re vast and
builders must provide minimal disturbance to the land,”
SunPower president and CEOTom Werner told Renewable Energy
Focus. “One of the things we do to mitigate environmental
impacts is to plant grasses between the rows of the system. We
changed fencing for the pit fox, for instance, so that it can go
in and out. In fact, we’ve had to address the needs of two
endangered species, as well as mitigate dust issues.”
As it closes in on completing the world’s largest solar power
plant, Werner speculates the future is in selling power not
panels.
“The industry hasn’t focused enough on EPC, and the task of
converting these solar cells into 20 year to 30 year power
stations," Werner stated. "Companies doing this more are being
rewarded with more growth and more shareholder value.”