2011 CA RPS Winners and Losers?

The private communication of the 2011 RPS solicitation short list winners and definite losers came out last week to the dismay of many.

The 2011 RPS solicitation was for all renewables including wind projects.  It is speculated that massive amounts were awarded to mature wind projects in this round to the detriment of newer solar projects.  These wind projects at a very low PPA bid are making an attempt to be built before the significant wind incentives expire.  Any PPA rate close to the MPR table is long gone, but thanks for the TOU table adder of the CA utilities, as compared to other states.

So many projects were submitted with 3 or 4 different proposals per project.  This produced total submissions of a massive amount as noted earlier.  In addition the threat of no RPS solicitation next year was a factor here.

Finding out the winners of the RPS solicitations of SCE and PG&E in the solar PV space over the next few months should once again show the competitive nature of this market.

Some unconfirmed short list winners are reported to be:

• Sharp-Recurrent Energy
• SunPower
• Eurus Energy
• Meridian Energy
• MEMC-MMA Fortuwatio-SunEdison new giant combo
• 8minutEnergy
• FRV

The rumored HIGHEST winning short listed solar PV bid was believed to be less than $0.08/Kwh, and no new interconnection cluster #4 timing projects were rumored to have been accepted.

The good thing was that the losers were told that a RPS solicitation would indeed happen next year in the late fall or so time period.  Good luck and try again at a lower price as they say!

The next significant bidding process will be for the Utility RAM programs in the November time frame.

In my opinion the 3MW SB 32 projects at the MPR table are getting more inviting all the time for building next summer.