USACE awards 20 additional contracts to renewable energy firms

The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), in collaboration with the Army Energy Initiatives Task Force (EITF), has awarded 20 additional contracts to renewable energy firms operating in solar, wind and biomass sectors.

The contracts have been awarded as part of the $7bn capacity addition through large-scale renewable and alternative energy power production under Multiple Award Task Order Contract (MATOC).

Scope of the contracts includes addition of 15MW solar energy capacity, 3MW wind energy capacity and 2MW biomass that support Army’s goal of producing 1GW of energy from renewable sources by 2025.

The firms that secured contracts in solar energy sector include Ameresco, Chevron Energy Solutions, Constellation NewEnergy, Distributed Sun, EDF Renewable, Energy Ventures, First Solar, FLS Energy, ABM Government Services, RE Independenceco, SunEdison Government Solutions, SunEdison, SunWize Technologies, TransGen Energy, and Victory Renewables.

In wind sector, the firms that won contracts include Ameresco, M. Arthur Gensler, and Infigen Energy US Development, while in Biomass sector Ameresco and Wheelabrator Technologies have secured the contracts.

Additionally, Foresight Renewable Solutions had secured the solar energy contract from the USACE in January 2014.

According to USACE, the 21 new contracts bring the total number of contracts awarded to 79 in the four MATOC energy technologies.

Previously, USACE had awarded 58 contracts for solar (22MW), wind (17MW), biomass (13MW), and geothermal (6MW).

The second round of MATOC contracts have been awarded in accordance with the original August 2012 request for proposal (RFP) that allowed for immediate awards to firms within the competitive range and additional awards to firms that qualified after further evaluation by the government.

The qualified MATOC firms will be eligible to bid on future renewable energy task orders, said the USACE.

Huntsville Center will be responsible for issuing a competitive task order request for proposal to the pre-qualified MATOC firms for the specific technologies.

The MATOC comprises third-party financed renewable energy acquisitions and involves no Army or Department of Defense (DOD) capital, or Military Construction appropriation.

The Army or DOD will buy the electricity from contractors who own, operate and maintain the generating assets.

The MATOC’s total estimated value of $7bn capacity refers to the total dollar value of energy available for purchase under all power purchase agreement task orders for their entire term of 30 years.

EITF executive director Amanda Simpson said, "Currently we are working projects and expect to deliver a task order in the next several months."