Episode 88 | Plentiful Projects | Invenergy
The most popular power generation choices to build these days are solar, wind, and natural gas. My guest specializes in all three.
Chicago-based Invenergy has 164 projects producing over 25 GW of electricity. Lately they've been focused on solar and storage projects.
Beth Conley, Invenergy's VP—Communications, says picking a project location depends on 4 things:
- Abundant resource
- Access to grid
- A customer
- Interested Landowners
"We really pride ourselves on the transparent way that we develop projects," she says. "We go into the community and make sure that we understand anything unique that would make developing a project in that community a great opportunity or maybe some challenges that a developer might encounter."
With the four criteria above possible in just about any location, Beth suggests the biggest challenge may be regulatory. She cites New York as a state where the regulatory process could drag to the point where a project no longer makes sense financially or strategically.
"I think that a lot of times when zoning regulations were put in place, they did not contemplate renewable energy projects," she adds.
Invenergy's central expertise is project management. They can also serve as an EPC (Engineering, procurement, and construction) contractor. Beth says the company will secure its own financing for a project, a topic we discussed in Episode 84.
Beth echoed a sentiment I've heard before, which is many utilities want to own and operate a facility once it is completed. She points out a few scenarios Invenergy has encountered:
- Power Purchase Agreements—Invenergy owns and utilities buy power
- Build to Transfer—Invenergy builds entire facility and sells to utility
- Development Transfer—Invenergy takes the project to the point of construction and hands over
At the time of the recording, Invenergy also has 13 storage projects, many co-located with other generation. She describes storage like a cell phone. "You use it when you need it. Sometimes until it’s exhausted. You recharge it again when you have a power source," she says."
In addition to their core generation, Beth says they are also looking into transmission, and water desalination, and offshore wind. The company also monitors much of its fleet with its own Invenergy Control Center, much like Duke Energy's facility covered in Episode 1.
At the end of the day, a project comes down to site selection. "You go out and knock on some doors," says Beth, "and if you're getting some people interested, it begins to look less like an idea and a little more like a project."
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