Amp Is Largest Solar Rooftop Project In America

By Ucilia Wang at Earth2Tech

The U.S. Department of Energy said on Wednesday it's offering a partial guarantee for a $1.4 billion loan that will fund Project Amp, which will erect solar panels on hundreds of rooftops around the country. The project is the largest rooftop solar plan in the country.

The financial aid is the first DOE loan guarantee that isn't going to a large, centralized solar power plant. Amp Project will install 733 MW of solar on about 750 rooftops run by Prologis, which owns and manages distribution warehouses in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Electricity from the project will be sold to utilities. Prologis and NRG Solar will co-own the project, said NRG spokeswoman Lori Neuman.

The loan guarantee applicant is Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which will provide the loan. The DOE is offering the partial guarantee under the Financial Institution Partnership Program (FIPP). FIPP is part of a loan guarantee program created by the stimulus package to boost job creation and clean power generation.

Through a loan guarantee, the government promises to repay the loan if the borrower can't. The DOE didn't specify how much of the $1.4 billion loan for Project Amp it is guaranteeing. The FIPP program allows the DOE to back 80 percent of a loan. FIPP focuses on backing projects that use more mature technologies, and it relies on private investors to secure the loans. In another part of the loan guarantee program, the government will provide the loans as well, through the Federal Financing Bank.

Project Amp will be carried out in phases. NRG Energy is the lead investor in the first phase, which will include a 15.4 MW array in Southern California. Southern California Edison will buy power from phase 1 of the project, which could add solar in as many as 28 states and the District of Columbia. Construction of the 15.4 MW project will begin before Sept. 30 this year.

In addition to the loan guarantee for Project Amp, the DOE has backed large solar farms in other regions of California and other southwestern states. Those projects include a 500 MW solar farm (part of a 1,000 MW project) by Solar Trust Of America, which held a ground breaking ceremony for the project in California last week. Another one under construction is a 392 MW plant in California by BrightSource Energy.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions

Comments

[JohnGault3]

05:36 PM on 06/27/2011

Now put a couple on the White House.

[Javalation]

11:47 PM on 06/27/2011

You do know that the last time a Democratic President did that, a cowboy actor had them removed as soon as he could, don't you?

[Moose Luck 99]

07:13 PM on 06/26/2011

If you want the solar panels that use THE LEAST SILICON.

Made in Mass.

Evergreen CELLS ARE not made in China
Posted on March 26, 2010 by John Kimball

It seems every time I turn around there is someone attacking one of our solar panels. Here’s a relatively indestructible clean energy source and of all the people to be knocking them for tiny little issues are the competing solar dealers.

Evergreen, however, is still moving forward with the assembly of large modules there (200 watts and up), who isn’t, in order to be the most competitive. They will still be manufacturing the cells in Massachusetts. (By the way did you know they use less, substantially less, silicon in the manufacturing of their modules than any other mfr. in the world). Yet, they deliver more power on hot days and has a faster energy payback. It’s al in the cells, anyone can do the assembly.

http://www.sunelec.com/blog/renewable-energy-2/evergreen-is-not-made-in-china-not-that-it-makes-any-difference/

[John Woodhouse]

06:21 PM on 06/26/2011

BIG COMPANY GETS SOLAR PAnels on distribution center, product cost stays the same we dont get any of the benefit..=sad

[horsey]

04:08 PM on 06/27/2011

read the article, you obv didn't

[aligatorhardt]

06:22 PM on 06/25/2011

The government should make low interest loans to the public directly instead of allowing mega banks to pull money away from renewable energy installations. The banks are getting extremely low interest loans, we do not need unnecessary middlemen.

[nmaddog7]

06:15 PM on 06/25/2011

Check out my blog on Us nuclear energy, I've been focusing on Nebraska recently but wrote a blog entry on a commercial solar power plant & it's fictional equal: http://nebraskanukewatch.blogspot.com/2011/06/fiction-becomes-reality.html

[netzwerg]

05:18 PM on 06/25/2011

"The US needs to structure this alternativ­e energy source the same as Germany. First, the government gives low interest loans to interested participan­ts to purchase solar panels."

The German government did not give any low interest loans, they forced the utility companies to buy the produced energy from the homeowner for a price which is guaranteed for 20 years. This makes solar systems a lucrative investment for everybody, private homes, companies...
For example I have a 12kWp solar system on my roof which produces more energy than my house needs, so my investment will have paid off in about 6 more years and I will still get an annual pay from the utility company.

[nirek]

04:08 PM on 06/25/2011

Why don't we install solar panels on school roofs, municipal building roofs, and government building roofs? And while we at it lets put a panel on each power pole and tie it right into the grid?
Think of all the jobs this project would create. There will never be a better time to go solar BIG time than NOW!
☮ ☮ ☮ Go Solar ☮ ☮ ☮

[JMC83]

01:00 AM on 06/26/2011

I'm sorry to say that I don't find that idea realistic in our present situation. Your intentions admirable, and I agree that moving in large measure towards alternative energies in the long term is a necessity for the preservation of humanity, we just don't have the money to fund a project of that size, especially considering the relatively rudimentary state of solar technology with regards to efficiency. Solar panels are great for your house, but if you want to power cities, you still need fossil fuels right now.

The truth as I see it is that we have some very good clean coal technology available to us. For example, electrostatic precipitators remove particulates by charging them with an electrical field and then capturing them on collection plates, keeping them from getting out into the atmosphere where they can harm us. Another option is gasification, an alternative to burning coal in the first place. Steam and hot pressurized air or oxygen are combined with coal in a reaction resulting in syngas (carbon monoxide & hydrogen). The syngas is burned instead. As an additional benefit, the heat energy from the gas turbine in syngas systems also powers a steam turbine. Syngas plants have potential to reach a fuel efficiency of 50%, with substantially less damage to the environment.

Clean coal technology is certainly not the long-term answer, but it is a bridge to the inevitable future of predominantly alternative/renewable energy.

[nirek]

06:45 AM on 06/26/2011

Clean and coal do not belong in the same sentence without a NOT between them.
It's an oxymoron.

[aacme]

09:30 PM on 06/26/2011

We could surely divert money we are already paying to subsidize oil, coal and nuclear companies, who hardly need it, to renewables.
And, you should like this one, private companies are installing collectors on houses, selling the electricity to the homeowner and the excess to the power company. No upfront cost to the homeowner. Power companies are understanding that if this keeps up they can get out of the business of mega-coonstruction (less capital costs) and concentrate on providing energy from many small suppliers.

[JMC83]

01:05 AM on 06/26/2011

It's just a question of getting the coal companies to adopt clean coal technology in every plant across the country.

This is where the government comes in. Tougher emissions standards with attending fines for coal plants, or especially a carbon tax (if only) could compel industry to take the financial hit associated with upgrading their facilities.

Your solar panels idea is good, but the Republican Party will never allow the amount of stimulus spending necessary to fund your theoretical project.

I apologize for the length of my response. I didn't intend for it to take this many words, but there you have it.

[The last sane American]

03:43 PM on 06/25/2011

But apparently cannot install it on the White House roof?

[justagirl]

10:00 AM on 06/26/2011

Carter installed panels on the White House roof, Raygun took them down.

[The last sane American]

01:26 PM on 06/26/2011

And it seems to me that a more current (I live up to my promises?) liberal President (Gee, I wonder who that is?) said he would re-install them?

[ClimateHawk]

05:29 PM on 06/26/2011

So it's time to put them back up!

[Thankgoodness]

02:27 PM on 06/25/2011

Sounds great! But just one question, 1.4 billion to put solar panels on 750 homes? Which can't be right, they must be using that money for other projects as well.

[ClimateHawk]

04:18 PM on 06/25/2011

750 warehouses.

Comes out to about 2 dollars a watt, which is not bad.

[fuzzychickens]

02:03 PM on 06/25/2011

In other news, coal and oil companies have developed a new crane that can drive by at night and scrape the solar panels off your roof.

[ClimateHawk]

02:17 PM on 06/25/2011

Whoa! Thanks for the heads up!

[tonyjim]

12:22 AM on 06/26/2011

They screwed us over in during the Reagan Administration. Tax incentives and subsides were removed and a lot of solar panel companies went out of business or sold to Scandinavian countries. Our loss in technology and research money, their gain.

[asiclilpup]

12:58 PM on 06/25/2011

Solar power in the Southwest and wind in the NE. The SW also has many wind farms already turning. On these technologies plus the new batteries that MIT (I think that's who it was ) is where I will gladly see tax dollars going to. Recycle--Reuse--Rebuild.

[nirek]

04:11 PM on 06/25/2011

Agreed, but SOLAR works in the NE too. I'm in Vermont and my array (3 years old) makes 120% of my power.☮ ☮ ☮ Go Solar ☮ ☮ ☮

[asiclilpup]

04:41 PM on 06/25/2011

Way to go, however the point I didn't quite explain was the Southwest has maybe 340 + days of bright sunshine a year. There's a place in Vermont or New Hampshire the has that many days and more of 100 mph of wind ! We can go green in many places and actuall make a difference.

[texfly]

11:58 PM on 06/25/2011

Curious. How big an array? Total m2 What is total Wpk? What is your ave usage kWh/mo?

Thanks

[Genders]

11:33 AM on 06/25/2011

Fantastic! Now take the rest of the Nuke loan guarantees and offer them to homeowners and small businesses.

[nirek]

04:11 PM on 06/25/2011

Excellent idea!
A win win!

[Genders]

10:41 PM on 06/25/2011

FF. As an hippie, I hang out with lots of Vietnam anti war vets,: my favorite people!

[kasser2011]

10:00 AM on 06/25/2011

usefull and good article


Thank you

[kraki]

02:57 AM on 06/25/2011

Let the free market decide the advancement.

[aztrukin]

10:25 PM on 06/24/2011

Well I say we all get loans and put them up just before we lose our jobs and our houses are foreclosed. At least these companies will be paid.