Canigou American PV Energy (CAPE)
A pipeline of development solar assets in New Mexico & Colorado
Canigou UMS Ltd., along with a US partner partner have secured a pipeline of 1GWp solar projects with a local land owner. The scale of each project is designed to match the current and projected future demands for energy.
The projects are all contained on a single land area and they are in an area of high solar intensity but benefit from being very near to significant part of the electrical transmission network, meaning there is ample scope top export this power to the grid.
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Why New Mexico and Colorado?
Reason 1: High Irradiation and Untapped Potential Studies define the most favourable belt for solar energy production to be between 15°N/S and 35°N/S. These regions have the greatest amount of solar radiation, more than 90% of which falls directly because of limited cloud coverage and rainfall. The selected site lies on Ute Mountain Ute Tribal lands in New Mexico within this optimum range. The site averages over 300 days of sunshine and has less than 14 inches or rain per year, and is located in the region of highest photovoltaic solar resources in the US. The landscape is a vast region of semi- arid desert, bordering between mountains and the high desert environments. The area has limited or is of no use for agriculture programs (unless under irrigation), has limited in grazing capabilities, and has a low population density, making it ideal for solar power.
Reason 2: Sizeable Peak Demand and High Energy Pricing The USA has a high price for electricity, when combined with high irradiation, this representing a very favourable opportunity for solar development. Average prices in the USA in 2019 were 37.4c per Kwh which is higher than the European average. With a strong manufacturing/industry fuelled economy and a sizeable peak demand in summer, due to energy intensive cooling and air conditioning systems, that matches perfectly with peak solar generation.
Reason 3: Near significant network Infrastructure In order to connect 5 x 200MWp solar projects to the national electricity grid requires connection to the national transmission network. The USA is divided into three major parts, the Eastern, Western and Texas network branches. The site of our projects at the reservation sits very close to the confluence of seven lines of the western branch. Indeed, the network has a 800MW line running parallel to the south of the site just outside the reservation lands that is currently used for a coal power station around 4 miles form the site. This station may be decommissioned at the end of 2021 freeing up significant capacity for new generation on the transmission network.
An average CAPE solar project:
200MWp connection
30
years of generation
600
ha of land
504
GW generated pa
240
thousand tCO2e avoided pa
560
thousand solar panels
102
thousand homes powered
Meet our Project Manager
Justin Passfield
Project Manager
Solar New Mexico
If you would like to speak to Justin in relation to the Canigou UMS project in New Mexico please email him at info@canigoucapital.com
Justin heads up our USA projects and is Managing Director of Canigou UMS Ltd, our development subsidiary for the New Mexico projects. He is based in London with frequent travel to the USA.
Justin is a seasoned finance professional. A chartered accountant by background, he spent much of his career in Financial Services, with notable roles including Finance Director of Barclays Private Bank, UK CFO at ABN AMRO investment bank, and European CFO at Alliance Bernstein, a New York listed asset manager with $800 billion under management globally. At Canigou Capital he has been focused on financing renewable energy assets across a number of technologies and in multiple national and international locations.
He has a good understanding of the project dynamics for these assets from early stage development, through the construction phase, and the long term cash flows from the operational phase. He can model, assess, and negotiate commercial solutions, and then structure the finance using a mix of equity, debt and mezzanine solutions to optimise the financial returns from the underlying asset.
Justin was previously the CFO of Alpin Sun, a German solar developer and EPC and in that capacity he has recently developed and sold 1,300MWp of solar PV in North America.