LRE has another 10 megawatt project in New Jersey in the works, hoping to get in under the current grant window for a total of 20 megawatts in 2011. The year 2012 holds the prospect of 30 megawatts in total projects with the hope of 60 megawatts to 80 megawatts per year in the coming years.
Flanagan formerly with what wind power developers Airtricity and E.on, and brings with him some hard-earned lessons from the wind developer industry that should apply to the solar market. One of his points, "Although the solar project development market is dominated by technology guys, in the long it will run up with developers end." He saw this happen in wind and expects it to happen in solar.
He also notes that in the solar business, "The ratio of announced to actual construction is pretty high, higher than wind."
He observes that just as wind farms have an optimum size, solar farms do as well, with a "sweet spot" in the 10 megawatt to 50 megawatt range - tending towards the lower end of the range on the East Coast and the higher end on the West Coast.
Other relatively small pure-play solar developers like Axio power, American capital energy, clear peak energy, sustainable energy capital partners, foresight renewables, agile energy, and Silverado power (see Anatomy of a 50 MW solar project). These firms could be acquisition targets for upstream solar players that have yet to integrate downstream. Until recently, the most established pure-play developers would have been recurrent energy, SunEdison, and Nextlight renewable power, but all three of those firms were acquired in the past 24 months.
Still, it's first solar and SunPower that dominate the utility PV market in the U.S. today. one of those two companies has been involved in every one of the 11 largest operating projects in the country. Although they dominate the monster-size projects, there is a very long tail. In fact, there is an oversupply of project developers - 55 different project developers have at least one signed utility PPA, with at 25 more least that have not yet signed any off-take agreements.
Utility-scale PV developers face a lot of challenges, both regulatory and financial. Expect to see consolidation via acquisition and attrition in this market.
And small developers like LRE will need some differentiation in their business strategy or team in order to survive the shake-out.
LRE has still a further 10-megawatt project in New Jersey in the works, in the hope to get into under the current window grant for a total of 20 megawatts in 2011. The year 2012 has the prospect of a total of 30 megawatts in projects with the hope of 60 megawatts to 80 megawatts per year in the coming years.
Flanagan was formerly with wind power developer Airtricity and E.on, and brings him some hard-earned lessons of the wind industry, which should be developer in the solar market. One of his points was: "Although the solar project development is dominated by technology market guys, in the long run it will end up with the developers." He saw this happen in wind, and expects that in the solar happen.
He also notes that in the solar business "the ratio of the actual construction announced, quite high, higher than wind is."
He observed that as well as wind farms an optimum size solar parks have, as also to do with a "sweet spot" in the range of 10 megawatts on 50 megawatt range - towards the lower end of the range on the East Coast and the upper end on the West Coast.
Other pure play solar relatively small developers like Axio power, American capital energy, clear peak energy, sustainable energy capital partners, foresight renewables, agile energy, and Silverado power (see Anatomy of a 50 MW solar project). These companies could acquisition targets for upstream solar player, the still behind integrate. Until recently the most established pure-play developers would have been recurrent energy, SunEdison, and NextLight renewable power, but all three of these companies have been in the last 24 months have acquired.
Nevertheless, it is first solar and SunPower that shape today, one of these two companies took part in the PV market in the United States program in each of the 11 biggest operating system projects in the country. Even though they dominate the monster-size projects, there is a very long tail. In fact, there is an oversupply of project developers - 55 different developers have at least a signed PPA utility, with at least 25 more, yet no off-take to signed agreements.
Utility PV developers are facing a lot of challenges, both regulatory and financial nature. Expect the consolidation of acquisition and see the turnover in this market.
And small developers such as LRE need a little differentiation in their business strategy or a team to survive the shake-out.
