As a group called All-4-One used to wonder in the 1990s, "Could This Be Magic?"
A federal program intended to give out money, and that actually gives out money. Fast. And there is more where that came from, as much as qualified people ask for.
This is the money that Iberdrola Renewables, Horizon Wind Energy and others are receiving from the departments of Energy and Treasury - a total of about $500 million was just announced this week. Horizon told our colleague Jeff Ryser that it had only filed its actual application last week. And it expected to have the cash deposited in its account - about $50 million - within just a few days.
That is cash money talking. DOE is not famous for disbursing loan guarantees, or setting appliance standards, or many other things, but after having the stimulus package approved by Congress, then setting the rules for the cash-grant program in early July, the department wasted little time.
Iberdrola, the US arm of the Spanish company, is receiving the lion's share, about $295 million, for about 500 MW in five plants it brought online this year in Texas, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Minnesota. Horizon, owned by Energias de Portugal, was awarded for a 97-MW plant it brought online in Oregon.
More awards will be made soon. While about $3 billion is available, officials have said there is really no limit on the amount they can disburse. All a wind project has to do is come online by the end of 2011; the money is available after a project starts operating. Solar projects have through 2016 to come online.
The idea, if it wasn't plain, is to spur the financial deals that get renewables built. Tax credits weren't working any more, with the financial market collapse. And unsurprisingly, the cash is working. "This is the fourth tax equity deal to close on wind farms" since Treasury released the program guidance in July, Chadbourne & Parke attorney Keith Martin told our colleague Peter Maloney. "The market had basically stalled while waiting" for that guidance, he said.
The American Wind Energy Association says 4,000 MW of wind came online in the first half of the year, and another 1,000 is expected by December. Next year's numbers aren't figured yet, but if the cash keeps talking - all other factors (like transmission construction and cost allocation, federal renewables mandates, and more) being stable, which they are not - the outlook has to be fairly strong.
And lest one think only the big guys can get this money, a bit of the $500 million went to a brand new gymnasium in Boulder, Colorado, for a 100-kW rooftop solar array. Movement Climbing and Fitness, described as the world's first renewable energy-powered gym, received $157,000.
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