The latest info on the SunEdison bankruptcy comes from sources other than the City of Georgetown. Why is the city not forthcoming with this information? Demand transparency! Buckthorn-Westex is the subsidiary of SunEdison that holds the contract for solar energy with Georgetown.
The city council is discussing tonight in executive session at the regular council meeting. Tell your council person thaat you want to know what is going on with Buckthorn-Westex!
SunEdison looks to sell Buckthorn PV project in Texas
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By Richard A. Kessler in Fort Worth
Thursday, July 21 2016
Updated: Thursday, July 21 2016
SunEdison, which filed for bankruptcy protection on 21 April, has asked creditors for permission to sell the 150MW Buckthorn PV project under construction in West Texas as part of a package of renewable energy assets it wants to divest.
“I know exactly who they are trying to sell it to, but I am not allowed to say legally,” says an official familiar with the sales process. “There is actually more than one party that has a bid on it. That may be what the hang-up is with the creditors, as there are multiple people looking at the project as a valuable asset that want it.”
SunEdison declined comment.
SunEdison had earlier tried to sell Buckthorn along with several wind farm assets in Colorado, North Dakota and Texas to an affiliate of Novatus Energy, a portfolio company of JP Morgan’s Infrastructure Investment Fund.
The US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York did not allow the Buckthorn sale to go forward because the limited liability company - Buckthorn Westex LLC - that is building the project had not declared bankruptcy, according to the official.
The project is located in Pecos County, the heart of Texas' emerging utility-scale solar development that is drawing interest from global investors.
Last year, Buckthorn gained national attention when SunEdison signed a 25-year off-take deal for the project’s entire nameplate capacity with Georgetown, helping it become the first city of any appreciable size in oil-drenched Texas to embrace renewable energy for all its power needs.
That decision was even more notable as city officials and residents are largely conservative Republicans, who generally oppose President Barack Obama’s climate-change and environmental initiatives.
Instead, the city made the move to go solar (and wind) on cost and as a long-term hedge against volatility of natural gas prices. Georgetown’s contract calls for initial deliveries of power in late April 2017.
SunEdison originally financed the initial rounds of construction for Buckthorn with plans to sell the facility upon completion to its yieldco TerraForm Power. It got an early start on construction but financing ran out several months ago, forcing the beleaguered developer to look for third-party sources as worksite activity ground to a halt.
Since then, continuing efforts to arrange financing have been complicated by the company's bankruptcy. In normal circumstances sale of Buckthorn would have taken little time as it is an attractive asset with guaranteed long-term cash flow from a creditworthy off-taker.
Even though project construction is not advancing, Georgetown does not see it as delayed from a “contract standpoint,” since the SunEdison subsidiary still has a window of opportunity to complete financing and get it built to meet the power delivery schedule.
“In a perfect world, if they had never gone bankrupt,” SunEdison could have had Buckthorn operational as early as October, the official says.
Meanwhile, industry talk continues that SunEdison also wants to sell its 116MW Castle Gap PV project in West Texas. This project has a contract to sell its power to Luminant, which is the largest utility in the state. It is the company’s first for solar energy.
That deal last September was encouraging for utility-scale solar developers here given Luminant’s long association with coal, using it to generate most electricity. The company is also the state’s largest miner of lignite. Luminant contracted solar on economics and its ability compete in the ERCOT wholesale market, not to meet an internal sustainability goal or a government mandate.
Like Buckthorn, a SunEdison subsidiary that is not a debtor is building Castle Gap. A Luminant spokesman tellsRecharge that SunEdison continues to inform it that the project will be ready in time to meet the deadlines set out in the PPA.
“Commercial operation is expected in 2017,” he said. “We’re not going to lay out what the deadlines are because that is proprietary.”
The press release announcing the deal last September said Luminant will purchase the power “starting in late 2016.”
ERCOT data shows that SunEdison has an interconnection agreement to expand Castle Gap by 63MW.
SunEdison has more than $16bn in liabilities, according to Bloomberg.
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