The deadline to complete the remaining DOE loan guarantees is 48 hours away from the end of the fiscal year close.
The DOE just finalized a $337 million loan guarantee to Mesquite Solar 1, part of a 700 megawatt photovoltaic project as well as for the Crescent Dunes solar thermal project which includes thermal storage for $737 million.
That's two down but the there are seven more outstanding conditional commitments for solar projects. And two of them (SolarStrong and Topaz), as we've covered, are not going to make it.
Here's the list of projects that are likely leading to some long days and nights at these firms and at the DOE loan guarantee office -- In the free time they have that's not occupied by the Solyndra affair.
First Solar's Antelope Valley 230-megawatt project with a loan guarantee of $680 million remains in the pipeline.
First Solar's 550-megawatt Desert Sunlight project with a partial guarantee of $1.88 billion remains in the pipeline.
First Solar's Topaz project with a partial guarantee of $1.93 billion will not meet the deadline.
Prologis Project Amp partial guarantee of $1.4 billion could close in the next two days.
SolarCity's SolarStrong with a partial guarantee of $344 million will not meet the deadline.
SunPower California Valley Solar Ranch loan guarantee of $1.187 billion for the 250 megawatt project is still in play.
Fotowatio's partial guarantee of $45.6 million for the 20 megawatt Apex plant in Nevada is still in play.
The is also a wind (Nordic Windpower) project and a biofuels project (Abengoa) in the queue.
Note that this deadline is just for the 1705 program and that projects using newer technologies like CPV or new inverters can take advantage of the 1703 program. This interview with Jonathan Silver of the DOE by the folks at GigaOm does a good job of explaining some of the intricacies of the loan guarantee program.
The two solar projects that have just reached the finish line:
Sempra Generation's massive 700-megawatt Mesquite Solar project, located near Phoenix, Arizona with Zachry Holdings as the EPC and Suntech as the panel supplier for the initial 200-megawatt (DC) phase of the build. The project is located near the Hassayampa 500-kV switchyard, a major transmission hub with access to southwestern U.S. markets. Transmission upgrades and site grading for the entire project have been completed in advance on the flat, privately held land. A 20-year power purchase agreements has been signed with Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) for the first phase of the project. When completed in 2013, Mesquite Solar I will be one of the largest photovoltaic solar installations in North America. The project will use "a non-trivial" number of Pluto panels, Suntech's high-efficiency PV panels. Mesquite will use transformer-less and liquid cooled inverter technology from Advanced Energy.
SolarReserve of Santa Monica, California closed a $140 million venture round in 2008 and just closed a $737 million loan guarantee from the DOE for a 110-megawatt molten salt storage power tower with more than 10 hours of thermal energy storage. This will be the tallest molten salt tower in the world, according to the DOE website. The firm licenses the molten salt power tower solar technology from Rocketdyne, a division of Hamilton Sundstrand, a subsidiary of UTC. SolarReserve has a power purchase agreement (PPA) with NV Energy for this project.
According to this chart from the Las Vegas Review Journal the PPA price for the Crescent Dunes project is $0.135 per kilowatt-hour
Will the DOE be able to close the other five projects?
Will Solyndra take a further toll on these lower-risk solar projects?
And will solar thermal projects be financeable in the future absent a loan guarantee?
We'll be able to answer at least two of those questions in the next 48 hours.
***
Here are some detailed stats on the Crescent Dunes project courtesy of Brett Prior at GTM Research:
Project Name: Crescent Dunes
Developer: SolarReserve
Technology: Power Tower
Capacity: 110 megawatts
Location: Tonopah, Nevada
Total Capital Cost: $983 million
Capital Cost: $8.93 per watt
Capacity Factor: 55 percent
Solar Resource: 2685 kWh/m^2/yr
Electricity generation: 480 GWh/yr
Solar-to-Electricity Efficiency: 17%
Acres: 1600 = 15 acres per megawatt
Cooling Method: Hybrid
EPC: UTC Pratt & Whitney
Operator: SolarReserve
Electricity Purchaser: NV Energy
Construction jobs: 600
O&M jobs: 45
# of heliostats/mirrors: 17170
Tower Height: 165 meters
Heat transfer fluid:Molten salt
Inlet Temperature (°C) 288 °C
Outlet Temperature (°C) 566 °C
Temp Difference 278 °C
Storage (hrs) 10
Break ground Oct-11
On line Jul-2013
PPA Date Dec-09
PPA Rate ($/kWh) $0.135/kWh
PPA/Tariff Period (yrs) 25
PPA approved by PUC Y
Land Type Public
Fast-tracked Y
Draft EIS 9/3/10
Record of Decision 12/21/10
Notes Thermal storage efficiency 99%
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