$7 Billion For Renewable Energy
by Hikari Qing NABiomass Gets A
Slice Of Army’s $7 Billion Renewable Energy Pie
We’ve been following the US Army
Corps of Engineers’ ambitious $7 billion renewable energy plan, and it looks
like the first round of contracts has concluded with smooth sailing. The
public-private initiative will use Department of Defense properties as sites
for utility scale solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass facilities that will be
built and operated by private companies. DoD in turn will benefit from access
to cheaper, safer, more reliable power. The first three areas were awarded
earlier this year, with biomass bringing up the rear.
Since the facilities will be built
under power purchase agreements, the US taxpayer does not bear any up-front
costs (the figure of $7 billion refers to the value of the energy).
$7
Billion For Renewable Energy
As with the other three areas, the
biomass awards are what DoD calls Multiple Award Task Order Contracts, which
are typically used for engineering and architecture services. Basically, it’s a
way to streamline the contracting procedure by pre-qualifying bidders, before
the actual jobs are identified.
That will depend on site assessments
and analysis for cost-effective opportunities to convert biomass, including
municipal solid waste, to energy. Once the sites are identified, the next step
is for USACE to issue competitive request-for-proposals to the eligible
bidders.
The streamlined procedure puts the
Corps of Engineers in synch with the Army’s new Energy Initiatives Task Force,
a team of experts who have the experience to package utility-scale facilities
at Army bases. That relieves individual base commanders from having to reinvent
the wheel with every new project.
The companies tapped for biomass including the heavy
hitters Honeywell International and Siemens Government Technologies, along with
Acciona Energy North America Corporation, ECC Renewables LLC, EDF Renewable
Energy, Emerald Infrastructure, Energy Answers International Inc., EIF United
States Power Fund IV L.P., Energy Management Inc., Energy Systems Group LLC,
MidAmerican/Clark JV, Pacolet Milliken Enterprises Inc., and Stronghold
Engineering Inc.
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