Just saw this from about a month ago..."EnviroMission project on...

Just saw this from about a month ago...

"EnviroMission project on hold

By JOHN GUTEKUNST
Parker Pioneer
Monday, June 17, 2013 4:10 PM MST

The project from an Australian company to build a half-mile tall “solar tower” to produce electricity is on hold. The company, EnviroMission Ltd., is attempting to secure financing for the project. A major hurdle is they no longer have an end user for the electricity they want to produce.

The project called for a huge canopy on the desert floor, which would be approximately 2,000 feet in diameter. Heated air from under the canopy would flow into a tower, which would be 2,600 feet tall. The heated air would turn turbines to generate electricity. The air would be vented through the top of the tower.

EnviroMission stated the facility would use no water and would produce no carbon emissions to produce electricity. It could also produce electricity after dark, unlike some solar facilities

Plans for the project were announced in October 2009. EnviroMission said the solar tower would generate enough power for 150,000 homes. Several thousand construction jobs would be created while it was being built. When completed, it would create 40 permanent jobs.

The chairman of EnviroMission’s American subsidiary, EnviroMission USA, Christopher Davey, said the concept had been tested and proven at a pilot project in Manzanares, Spain.

The estimated cost was $750 million. The construction firm of Hensel Phelps of Greeley, Colo., has been contracted to build it. An internationally recognized firm, they built the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, Germany, and the South Terminal at Miami International Airport.

EnviroMission held several work sessions with the La Paz County Board of Supervisors to keep them informed about the status of the project. The last of these were in 2011.

Vincent “Skip” Becker of the La Paz Economic Development Corporation said the project has cleared all regulatory hurdles. They’re having trouble securing financing because they no longer have an end user contracted for their product. Without such an end user, Becker said their chances of securing financing are slim.

EnviroMission had a power purchase agreement with the Southern California Public Power Authority for utilities to purchase electricity from them. The deal was approved by the SCPPA board in October 2010 and finalized Feb. 27, 2011.

The SCPPA backed out of the power-purchase deal in November 2012. In an address to the company’s shareholders Nov. 30, 2012, EnviroMission CEO Roger C. Davey stated the SCPPA decided to terminate the agreement because the company could not provide them with an estimate of when the project would be ready, or, as it was called, “an immediacy of certainty.”

“New requirements to the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards of energy providers in the State of California placed pressure on SPCCA members to provide an immediacy of certainty of the delivery of projects in their renewable energy portfolio,” Davey said. “EnviroMission could not satisfy that immediacy because the La Paz development project finance was still in the pipeline. This provided SPCCA with a talking point to revisit their Power Purchase Agreement with EnviroMission and resulted in SCPPA and EnviroMission terminating the Power Purchase Agreement. EnviroMission may still submit to an open Request for Proposals (RFPs) with SCPPA at a future point in time.”

In addition to the La Paz project, the company has begun looking at other areas in America. In May 2013, the company signed an agreement with Texas-based Apollo Development LLC to develop solar tower projects in Texas.

In a story published earlier this month in a Phoenix newspaper, Roger Davey said the company had not given up on the La Paz project, and they are working to secure the financing. He added they hope to break ground next year.

“It’s very, very real,” Davey is quoted as saying. “It’s very genuine. It is a huge project in all aspects, not just in size. We will get it done.”

The Phoenix newspaper reported the company has lost $35 million to date.

Becker said he was optimistic EnviroMission would find an end user and secure the financing for the project.

“They’ll find an end user,” he said. “It’s not a matter of ‘if,’ but ‘when.’”"

http://www.parkerpioneer.net/articles/2013/06/17/news/doc51bf8fcc3c42a677215689.txt

I assume/hope that Apollo will have a better chance of securing finance than Enviromission!