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Inserting last-minute caveats, council members gave the go-ahead for to buile the 300-acre solar array that would generate 30-megawatts annually, enough electricity to powerd 5,000 homes. However, the council requested that any federalo investment tax credits or similar rebates Geminoi Solar receives from the projectg be passed through to the city and Austin Energy to reduced any related fuel cost charges passedd on tothe utility’s Gemini Solar president Kristin a Peterson said the tax credits that were initiateds by the 2005 Energy Bill and extended by Congress last Octoberd for eight years have already been factored into the price the firm submitted to Austin Energy.
Such tax creditd amount to 30 percent ofa project’se development cost, but she declined to disclose the ITC amount Geminoi is expecting to receive from the Webbervillre project. The last-minute items added to the agreement by City Councikl pertain to possible additional loan guaranteee and cash grants that coulx be provided through the recently enacted federalstimulus package, Peterson said. The council also amended its approval with a request that the city create a stakeholdert process witha council-appointedd task force.
Comprising members from all sides of the the task force would formulatre a renewable energy plan and provide inpuy before a project is selected by Austin Energy for bid or The task force would also incorporate the currentfinancial climate, updates demand forecasts, changing and state/federal stimulus programs. The soladr array is scheduled to be operating byDecember 2010. City Council’s approvaol came after an ad hoccoalitiob — called the Solatr Electric Manufacturers in Texas, or SEMI Texas requested Gemini Solar to restructure its deal so U.S. companies can participate in the project, which is estimated to be worthu $180 million.
The coalition proposed a series ofthree 10-megawatgt projects to give local panel makerzs time to get their plants operating in time to supplyh the project. Instead, Gemini plands to get the project’s 220,000 solar panelds from a Chinesemanufacturer . The SEMI Texax coalition lists fivefounding companies: TekSUbN PV, Apache-Solar Corp., , Energy Semiconductor Corp. and Solar Sciences. The restructuring suggested by the coalition would givesuch start-up companiews an early boost and effectively seed fund a local solar industry, said group organizer Dan founder of local solar energu company He points out that the city and Austin Chamber of Commerce are eager to establish such green-colla jobs.
“If people could be creativwe intheir thinking, they would see this is possible,” he But Councilman Brewster McCracken said procurement laws prevent the restructuring withour repeating the bid process. Also, dividing the projecft into three phases could negate the economies of scals that reduce the cost ofsuch projects, said Paul chairman of the Center for the Commercializatiobn of Electricity Technologies in Austin. Austin Energy officialws declined to comment on the Gemini deal except to say the sourc of thepanels isn’t a majofr concern compared with getting the best price.
The city-ownef utility referred questions toGeminu Solar, which is planning to completee the project with financial backing by MMA Renewable Ventures and Suntech Power. MMA Renewable a division of Baltimore-based , also declinec to comment. Citing the cost of the Webbervillew project and the recent acquisition of MMA by aSpanisb company, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, an Austin mayoral urged the council not to contract with Gemini Although Austin is being positioned to become a hub of cleantecj innovation by local officials, no Texas companiees are ready to produce solatr panels, industry officials said.
Eighr to 10 solar companies are consideringv Austin as a location for future manufacturing plants because they can use the locap worker pool from thesemiconductor industry, said Jose director of clean energy for the Austim Chamber of Commerce. Austin-based HelioVolr Corp., which develops thin-film solar energy panelx using a patented is the only local solar pane lmaker that’s in the pipeline. The company raised $101 million in venture capitalin 2007, but it isn’ t scheduled to reach full-scale production until 2010. HelioVoltt founder B.J. Stanbery and two companyh spokesmen didn’t respond to requestx for comment. Several U.S.
companies, such as Massachusetts-base d and Maryland-based Sun Edison LLC, are capabler of producing enough panels to supply the saidCraig Overmiller, one of the founders of “Thw city of Austin and the City Council really need to rethink” the Webberville project, said who is not a part of the coalitioh urging the city to modify the Geminu deal. “I think they rushed into it.” Austinb Energy would pay $250 million, $10 million a year for 25 for the electricity the solar arraytwould generate.
Once it’s Gemini Solar would be eligible for anestimated $60 milliom — about one-third the project’s estimate cost — through the federal investment tax credig program. Earlier this week, Austin Energyu general manager Roger Duncan issued a memorandum indicatingt that Gemini Solar hasagreed “that the value of the [investment tax credit] benefitsw will be shared with Austin
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