Great River Energy Issues Request for Proposals

Posted on August 26, 2011 by William H. Holmes

On August 15, 2011, Great River Energy (GRE) issued a request for proposals (RFP) for community-based energy development (C-BED) renewable energy resources.  Eligible energy technologies include: wind, solar, hydroelectric of less than 100 megawatts, biomass, municipal solid waste, landfill gas and anaerobic digesters, and hydrogen produced from any of the previous resources.

In announcing the RFP, GRE noted that it already has enough renewable resources in its energy portfolio to meet Minnesota's Renewable Energy Standard.  Minnesota's RES requires electric utilities to supply an increasing percentage of their energy sales from renewable energy sources, reaching 25 percent by 2025. Nevertheless, GRE issued the RFP to "evaluate if additional C-BED renewable resources can provide value to our member cooperatives in the future," according to Jon Brekke, Great River Energy vice president of member services.  GRE plans to evaluate proposals based on their impact to wholesale power rates and other factors.

Proposals are due before 4pm Central Prevailing Time on Sept. 9, 2011.  GRE plans to notify short listed bidders by September 30 and has targeted November 1, 2011 as the execution date for a power purchase agreement (PPA).  GRE is clearly looking for bargains from developers who can take advantage of the Section 1603 cash grant, a program that expires on December 31, 2011, and who can place a project in service by December 31, 2012.  Since projects seeking the cash grant will need to "begin construction" (as that concept is defined in Section 1603) by December 31, 2011, the November 1 target execution date will likely be critical for developers seeking to arrange project financing before year end.

GRE is interested in entering into a PPA rather than a build-transfer or other ownership arrangement.  GRE's form of PPA can be found here.   The RFP itself can be found here.  For more information about the RFP, contact Mark Rathbun at 763-445-6104 or 2011cbedrenewablerfp@grenergy.com.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Trackbacks (0) Links to blogs that reference this article Trackback URL
http://www.lawofrenewableenergy.com/admin/trackback/257273
Comments (0) Read through and enter the discussion with the form at the end
Post A Comment / Question Use this form to send a comment to the editor. Please do not include any information that you or someone else considers to be confidential in nature. Without prior establishment of an attorney-client relationship, unsolicited messages containing confidential information cannot be protected from disclosure.







Remember personal info?
Send To A Friend Use this form to send this entry to a friend via email.