#capital dynamics

[rjzimmerman]

World’s Largest Customer-Sited Solar-Storage Plant Planned for Nevada Desert

Capital Dynamics is building a massive solar-plus-storage plant next to a Switch data center. Is the model replicable?

Excerpt from this story from GreenTech Media:

A colossal Nevada data center will host the largest customer-sited solar-storage project in the world.

Data center operator Switch plans to buy power for its record-breaking Citadel facility from an adjacent project developed and owned by Capital Dynamics. A 60-megawatt/240-megawatt-hour Tesla Megapack installation will turn 127 megawatts of solar capacity into a nearly 24/7 power source.

This marks one entry in a broader effort by Switch founder and CEO Rob Roy to meet his company’s energy needs with clean-energy investment in its home base of Nevada. But while plenty of tech companies have purchased clean energy to account for their power consumption, and some have required clean energy produced in the regions where it is consumed, none have produced it at their own facilities at this scale.

The largest behind-the-meter battery title previously went to Convergent Energy + Power for 10-megawatt systems to help industrial companies dodge demand charges in Ontario, Canada. The Switch battery, integrated by Con Edison’s commercial solutions arm, would be six times larger than Convergent's systems when it comes online in a couple of years.

The solar side of the equation also breaks new ground by accessing the economies of scale normally reserved for remote utility-scale projects but using them to satisfy the consumption of one giant customer.

The mere existence of such a project raises the question of whether this presages a new market for enormous behind-the-meter clean energy or simply amounts to a highly compelling one-off.

[justsomeantifas]

Honestly though even if abandoning capitalism was guaranteed to slow progress, I wouldn't be so horrified as to abandon liberty and happiness in exchange for an increased pace of technological development. I would much rather have slower progress and be happy and free than have quick progress but be unhappy and oppressed.

Less "slowed progress", more "progress to human ends we're the ones in control of"

[pueblosenergyfuture-blog]

Pueblo's Energy Future Town Hall: An Evening with Capital Dynamics AG

Pueblo’s Energy Future Town Hall: An Evening with Capital Dynamics AG

When: On July 24, 2018, Pueblo’s Energy Future (PEF) will host the fourth Town Hall in our speaker series featuring the Switzerland-based venture capital and private equity firm, Capital Dynamics AG. Come to learn about funding options the city has. This will take place from 5:30 to 7:30 pm.

Where: Pueblo County Emergency…

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[sunpowervegas]

SunPower, First Solar close on sale of yieldco 8point3

New Post has been published on http://www.mselectriclv.net/sunpower-first-solar-close-on-sale-of-yieldco-8point3/

SunPower, First Solar close on sale of yieldco 8point3

Pixabay The story of yieldco 8point3 Energy Partners is coming to a conclusion. Born as the result of a tryst between two large solar companies that never really saw eye to eye and had other priorities, it experienced a promising but ultimately troubled youth, and is now wed to wed to a conservative, stable asset manager. Any rumors that it has moved to the suburbs have not been substantiated.[…]

Click here to view original web page at pv-magazine-usa.com

Yesterday SunPower and First Solar closed on the sale of their respective shares of 8point3 Energy Partners to Capital Dynamics, as revealed in SEC filings. First Solar received $240 million from the sale, and SunPower $360 million.

The sale of 8point3 comes as both companies have moved away from project development and back to their original mission of manufacturing. Both First Solar and SunPower are expanding their manufacturing in different ways, which inevitably burns through cash, although the circumstances of each are different.

First Solar is currently in the midst of a billion-dollar retooling of its factories to produce the new, large-format Series 6. Along with this, it is expanding its capacity at two new factories in Vietnam and a new 1.2 GW plant in Ohio, which broke ground earlier this month.

All of this activity is expensive, and First Solar has burned through nearly 1.3 billion in cash during the last three quarters. However, at the end of the first quarter the company was still sitting on a war chest of $1.9 billion in cash and equivalents to fund its ongoing work.

SunPower is in a very different situation. Despite its technological successes, even before the Section 201 tariffs the company had been consistently unable to turn a profit. SunPower was down to $261,000 in cash and equivalents at the end of Q1, and has chosen to quit its utility-scale development activities and sell off its microinverter business to Enphase.

As such, for SunPower the sale of 8point3 brings in much-needed cash. The funds have already been committed to pay off a bridge loan that SunPower secured from a French bank a month ago. This in turn allowed SunPower to pay off convertible loan certificates, much of which were held by its majority owner, Total.

While the bridge loan was for only $300 million in principal, it is unclear how much will be left over after SunPower pays for interest and fees. But this is not the end of SunPower’s financial obligations, as it is planning to acquire SolarWorld Americas’ Oregon factory for an undisclosed price.

As for 8point3, its shares will no longer be traded on the NASDAQ, and shareholders received only $12.48 per share. This was a bitter pill for independent shareholders, and the company’s stock price collapsed in early February on the news of the terms.

At last count 8point3 held 946 MW-AC of U.S. solar projects, the vast majority of which were utility-scale and located in California.