John Barnes is co-founder and CEO at Solar Land Partners, Inc. Solar Land Partners is a solar PV service partner for taking projects to a “shovel ready” state for construction. Their target market focus is 3-20MW solar PV projects in CA and the US SW.
Solar Land Partners is presently developing projects for some of the largest US and world wide solar companies.
John Barnes was also a founder and principal at Solar Power Development Partners in San Jose, California. There the SPDP team specialized in complete development services for 3-20MWp solar PV farm implementations.
- Development of solar system implementation plans, supplier partnership relationships, manufacturing partnerships, and energy sales plans.
jbarnesca
The Solar CA Blog of John Barnes 
John:
I look forward to meeting you one day soon.
You have done an excellent job of keeping up with this ever changing PPA regime.
Stuart
By: Stuart L. Smits on January 30, 2011
at 3:28 pm
Thanks Stuart.
I try to post on what was a main policy issue with subtle details that was on my mind for the past week or two.
By: jbarnesca on February 13, 2011
at 8:14 am
John,
I’d love to connect with you about distributed solar in California. In particular, I had heard that CPUC was requiring SDG&E to publish an interactive map of their grid down to the circuit level and was wondering if you’d heard the same and if you know of other utilities providing that information (voluntarily or under duress).
-John
By: John Farrell on March 1, 2011
at 12:54 pm
Yes SDG&E showed this level of information first, and PG&E will follow suit. This is based on the constant pushing of the old FIT coalition group for such information and nice understanding of the CPUC people in charge of the solar PV programs.
By: jbarnesca on March 1, 2011
at 1:23 pm
I noticed that SDGE seems to be much more helpfull than Edison. They actually have people who answer a phone and the questions one has while Edison ignores calls and expects people to search trough books and books of info in order to find an answer. The substation, grid, interconnection and site placement question seems to either be to difficult to answer or they don’t want to give clear answers and instead, make a big secret out of it. Seems like a childish and unadult way to be when some of us are just trying to execute a more enviormental future. Why is that? Are they trying to force people into $800.00 reviews. I’m not to savy in this field yet but I’m trying to get there. Right now my problem is chosing the right site and figuring out what to pay attention to when looking at properties for a 1.5 MW farm. I don’t know what type of property to look for in order to keep interconnection costs low. Maybe you can help a little.
Hey, by the way, nice theme up there….
By: Marc on June 10, 2011
at 1:04 pm
Hello Marc,
At presentt the ease of finding interconnection information on line or by yourself rating would be 1)PG&E, 2)SDG&E, and 3) SCE; however things are in constant change. We get favorable interaction on work with SCE, but it does take a little work to find how to do this properly.
By: jbarnesca on June 10, 2011
at 1:19 pm
A proper way for solving my issue from the utilities side would be a map of all areas and an overview of the areas capabilities. That way it would be as simple as, calling and telling them my plan, ( a 1.5 MW Solar Farm )telling them in area such and such ….either city & street adress or GPS coordinates, then in response they look up their map and can see which grid capacity is currently used and which capacity is remaining in that area. It could or should be a 20-30 minute “look it up” process rather than making a big issue out of it. That way, if a property is interesting and the community allows it for the use of solar farming, I can purchase it before it’s sold off to someone else. Good priced properties sell fast and who wouldn’t want to get a good deal on the land.
By: Marc on June 10, 2011
at 1:58 pm
Sorry John, Didn’t mean to complain & clutter your blogg with a bunch of whining. I guess I’ll just have to digg through the clutter of Edisons website and their PPA application process.
Take care
Marc
By: Marc on June 10, 2011
at 2:11 pm
Hello John,
Nice blog. I have to ask, where is the location of the photo at the top, the patchwork coastal farms? Beautiful.
The main purpose of my inquiry is, are you interested in undeveloped land in the Mojave, near North Edwards?
Regards,
Des Johnston
By: Des Johnston on June 23, 2011
at 11:02 am
Mr. Johnston,
One thing to learn quickly is that the North Edwards Barstow/Lancaster area has been evaluated for best sites and acceptable solar projects since 2008 or earlier. So there exists lots of knowledge of every inch of that area, as they say, and new proposals from “raw dirt” would be very tough to start now.
By: jbarnesca on June 23, 2011
at 3:17 pm
Okay, fair enough. After I posted my message, I also made contact with Mr. Richardson of your group, not knowing at the time that you are part of the same entity. Perhaps something will come of this.
Your business appears to be a great niche, would love to work for you if you need another permitting, environmental compliance & gov’t relations specialist.
So, the photo on your blog site…Britain or Ireland.or..?
By: Des Johnston on June 23, 2011
at 3:54 pm
On the photo, I thought it looked like lots of CA northern coastline scenes to me that I cherish, and never thought about where it really was.
By: John Barnes on June 23, 2011
at 4:14 pm
I am looking for a 20 acres of land sutable for Solar under SCE territory. I am from Ohio thus not vary familiar in terms how to go about doing this properly.
By: Rana on February 3, 2012
at 3:57 am
Mr Rana,
I would recommend that the purchase of “dirt” in the Mojave in CA for the furture construction of any solar PV farm in the size range of your site(~2-3MWac) would be a very questionable adventure.
I contend that Edison territory is so “booked up” with viable projects with interconnection studies well advanced, permitting underway, and very large and competent groups, that lots of the high insolation territory will not see many viable projects built into well into 2015 at this moment.
The “train has left the station” as they say, and the action is in the projects that have been underway for about 2 years for building in the 2012-2014 range.
For instance, the upcoming March Cluster #5 set of new projects will be into 2016 before any construction due to the interconnection timing alone, pretty useless, and worth much.
By: jbarnesca on February 3, 2012
at 7:25 am
John, thanks for sharing great information on your blog. I have a question regarding bi-lateral negotiations with California IOUs. I hear mixed views on this topic… My understanding is that SCE, PG&E, SDG&E are still open to bi-laterals.
By: Eddie Ya on January 9, 2013
at 2:33 pm
Eddie,
SCE has tried in their recent attempt with the CPUC to not have a RPS solicitation for this year and to still allow bi-lateral negiotiations. That created quite a backlash. So all three IOUs were required to have a 2012 RPS solicitation this year.
The motivation for a bi-lateral deal with a smaller developer that they don’t already have deals with would seem to be low at this time. If you are NRG, First Solar, or others of that stature all things are possible, especially for larger >20MW size projects underway for years.
By: jbarnesca on January 9, 2013
at 2:40 pm
Much appreciated!
By: Eddie Ya on January 14, 2013
at 11:02 am
John, thanks for and easy to read blog. Making sense of CA FIT programs and opportunities and who won what has always been a challenge. We are a Native American owned EPC and have completed 1 18 MW project for PG&E andover 20 MWs of distributed generation governmental/school projects and are actively looking for more construction or EPC opportunities. Would love to discuss anytime. JW Postal – MW Solar a division of Milender White Cosntruction Co. 303-378-8590 jpostal@milenderwhite.com
By: Jonathan W. Postal (JW) on August 6, 2013
at 7:48 am