3 ms·

It's unclear how they will finance this $1B project or who they will sell the juice to. Is the tribe getting suckered into a bad deal?

• kitten_mittens_ 3y ago
  > who...will they sell the juice to? Utah is already a power exporter. Utah generates about one-fifth more electricity than it consumes, and the state is a net supplier of power to other states.[1] [1] https://www.eia.gov/state/analysis.php?sid=UT https://www.eia.gov/state/analysis.php?sid=UT
  • loeg 3y ago
    This tribe is in Colorado, not Utah, despite the name. Transmission is expensive; you'd rather sell locally. Before you finance a $1B project it would be good to have a sense of how you expect to sell the outputs!
    • nyrikki 3y ago
      There is a star of WECC transmission lines going all around the region just south of the Colorado border near ShipRock NM. Part of what made this project viable IMHO was the adjacency to existing WECC Interface Paths. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WECC_Intertie_Paths#/media/File:Western_US_electrical_power_transmission_map.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WECC_Intertie_Paths#/media/Fil...
    • pixl97 3y ago
      Simply put, we're going to have to build transmission infrastructure in the US. Right now we get past a lot of that by bundling up coal and natural gas in trains and pipes and generating closer to the sink.
    • justinwp 3y ago
      Transmission lines are already there because of the nearby decommissioned coal plant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Juan_Generating_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Juan_Generating_Station
• photochemsyn 3y ago
  The financial outfit behind it seems to have a decent track record with smaller projects around the world: https://energypeople.com/news/story/green-returns-for-green-investors--canigou-capital-s-17-3--annual-roi-unveiled https://energypeople.com/news/story/green-returns-for-green-... They also state that they're interested in developing hydrogen and ammonia production capability using the electricity produced, rather than selling it to the grid, but building such production facilities would increase up-front costs by several billion.
  • loeg 3y ago
    Thanks! I'd be interested in hearing more about the specific terms and sources of capital for this project, if you know.
• oaththrowaway 3y ago
  IIRC this tribe has a casino