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Recognizing that financeability is a key ingredient in the success of any capital-intensive undertaking, we are developing projects that are structured to provide predictable and resilient returns to investors and lenders. As a technology-agnostic company, we are able to deploy the best solar equipment, as well as complementary technologies, such as battery storage, for the benefit of project owners, power purchasers, landowners and other constituents.
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We believe that the transition to a low carbon economy will be accelerated by the availability of competitively priced renewable energy, so we are intensely focused on lowering the cost of solar power. Much of our core team has worked together at NextLight and First Solar, Inc., its acquirer, where Brian ran North and South American project development and origination.Ĭandela’s mission is to develop the most reliable, cost effective, financeable and environmentally beneficial solar power projects in the United States. These projects broke records for scale, helped drive down costs, and are now successfully operating in a number of states. NextLight took the logical next step by developing much larger projects, utilizing photovoltaic equipment, which was rapidly becoming more cost efficient. Solar power had previously been deployed through small photovoltaic projects, mostly on rooftops, and larger solar thermal projects using technologies such as parabolic trough mirrors. NextLight brought together a team of highly experienced professionals from the power industry to focus on what was then an emerging industry: solar power. Dozens of residents lambasted the company for encroaching on their land.ĭuring one especially tense exchange, Nye County Commissioner Debra Strickland warned: “This is not going over well with my community.Candela Renewables was formed by Brian Kunz and Nik Novograd, who worked together at NextLight Renewable Power, a company that Brian co-founded in 2008. “I don’t know if I can be happy if I’m going to be enduring a fungal infection that could kill me.”Īt a recent meeting of the Pahrump Public Lands Advisory Committee, Dewey Klurfield, Candela Renewables manager of development, shared plans for the Rough Hat Nye County solar project with community members. Candela Renewables, which is based in San Francisco and was founded in 2018 by former First Solar employees, is valued at 80 million-100 million, one of the sources said. “I am absolutely on board for green energy, but not at the expense of the community this is being put on top of,” she said. She spent most of the pandemic practicing social distancing and spending time outside, but now fears that if the Rough Hat solar project is approved, construction could mean blinding dust storms and valley fever, or coccidioidomycosis, an infection caused by fungus found in soil in the southwestern United States and parts of Mexico. A 22-year resident of Pahrump, she survived lung cancer and getting one lung removed. Last week, a solar company was fined almost $220,000 for failing to control dust during construction and blowing some 70 tons of excess dust into the air, The Associated Press reported.īarbara Callihan uses many of those trails for her Happy Hoof Beats equestrian business. Those particles can be unhealthy, especially for people with existing respiratory conditions. Removing the crust can contribute to powerful dust storms that release particles and carbon into the air, Johnson said. Bridget Bennett for NBC NewsĪmong those impacts is damage to the desert’s crust, a thin layer of soil on the surface that acts like a seal, trapping both carbon and nutrients underneath. As part of the agreement, Candela will develop a new solar power project, boosting the local economy as a result of the investment and creating new construction and permanent full-time jobs. Disturbing the delicate desert crust, a thin layer of bacteria-rich soil that retains water and nutrients and slows erosion, can contribute to powerful dust storms that release particles into the air. Candela Renewables announced an agreement with Google for a 140-MW power purchase agreement in Texas, bringing new green energy to the ERCOT power grid. Candela Renewables announced an agreement with Google for a 140-MW power purchase agreement in Texas, bringing new green energy to the ERCOT power grid. “The question is how do we try to avoid and minimize those impacts?” Candela Renewables, a San Francisco-based renewable energy company, is hoping to build a large-scale solar field in Pahrump, Nev., which has what's known as cryptobiotic soil. “We need to recognize that any form of energy is going to have some impacts,” said Nels Johnson, North American director for renewable energy at The Nature Conservancy. Large-scale solar fields run the risk of displacing native plant and animal life, contributing to ferocious dust storms, and disturbing fragile desert soil capable of capturing much-needed moisture from the air.
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