February 11, 2012
SEPA Releases Review of Large-Scale Solar Energy Industry Projects in 2011
This special Year in Review edition of the Solar Electric Power Association’s (SEPA) Centralized Solar Projects Bulletin covers centralized solar energy industry projects activity in the 4th quarter as well as 2011 as a whole.
In the fourth quarter of 2011, eleven solar energy industry projects totaling nearly 200 MW of new capacity were completed. The largest project was the 37.5 MW of the planned 150 MW Mesquite Solar I facility, and the second largest was the 32 Long Island Solar Farm. Four of the these projects are utility owned. Six solar energy industry projects commenced construction with a planned cumulative capacity of over 220 MW, and eleven projects totaling 91 MW were announced.
Throughout all of 2011, a total of 420 MW of new installed solar energy industry capacity from 31 solar projects was completed. Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) was the utility with the greatest added capacity of centralized solar projects with 132 MW. The largest project built is the 37.5 MW from the partially completed 150 MW Mesquite I Solar facility. There was a 72% increase in centralized solar project capacity between 2010 and 2011.
A total of 24 centralized solar energy industry projects commenced construction in 2011 with a total expected capacity of over 4 GW. The second and third quarters saw a significant amount of construction due to Federal renewable energy incentive guidelines. A total of 22 announced projects have output purchasers with a cumulative capacity of 941 MW.
2012 will be an interesting year for centralized solar energy industry project development. Key uncertainties include federal tax policy, the outcome of federal Chinese module proceedings and utilities that may have filled their project pipelines for the near-term. We will expect to see some very large solar projects coming online in 2013-2015 due to project construction starts in 2011.
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