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Rancho Bernardo solar firm crippled by SDG&E pullout

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Solar manufacturer Soitec is scrambling to salvage crucial contracts for its San Diego, after San Diego Gas & Electric announced the end of its business relationship with the French company.

The U.S. Department of Energy contributed $25 million to the factory’s construction in 2012 with the goal of boosting a promising solar technology and creating skilled U.S. jobs.

The Rancho Bernardo assembly line employs 250 people. Employees were told this week that it’s likely the facility would go into cost-cutting mode in January, a representative for Soitec said Friday.

To underwrite its factory in Rancho Bernardo, Soitec had lined up contracts to supply 305 megawatts of its signature solar trackers to utility-scale solar plants, mostly in the Imperial Valley and southeastern San Diego County. Amid permitting delays and shifting economics for solar technology, nearly all of the contracts have fallen through or face uncertainty.

Soitec Vice President Clark Crawford said the company is “working to obtain a meeting with SDG&E to find a viable path forward to preserve the power purchase agreements, which will maintain the long-term viability of our factory.”

SDG&E, a key partner in contracts underwriting Soitec’s $200 million investment in the assembly line in Rancho Bernardo, announced in a statement Friday that “we no longer have a direct business relationship with Soitec.”

SDG&E said it had taken “unprecedented action to work with Soitec, amending contracts, extending milestone deadlines and seeking additional California Public Utilities Commission approvals. ... But Soitec has historically not been able to meet the extended deadlines and other milestones in the contracts.”

Soitec’s facility in San Diego has supplied solar equipment to 1 megawatt solar plant in Newberry Springs and a roughly 5 megawatt facility in Borrego Springs, and has otherwise kept active equipping new solar farms overseas in China, South Africa and other countries.

Soitec’s concentrated photovoltaic technology differs from the common silicon panel seen on residential rooftops and big solar farms. It uses a lens to focus light on a highly efficient cell no bigger than a ladybug. The lenses and cells are bundled into panels the size of a double garage door, then mounted on trackers that follow the sun.

In August, a peer review of the Energy Department grant to Soitec raised concerns about the company’s ability to compete with less-expensive conventional solar panels. The cheapest technology — not necessarily the most energy efficient — is likely to prevail, the experts said.

Engineers at SDG&E embraced concentrated photovoltaic solar technology because it provides a steadier electricity supply throughout the day, helping cope with high power demands late on summer days.

Soitec’s first difficulties in Southern California emerged when solar contractor Tenaska backed out of using Soitec technology at facilities in the Imperial Valley, scrapping a 150 megawatt commitment.

Soitec is going through a lengthy permitting process for several of its own solar power plants at Boulevard. Faced with delays, Soitec attempted recently to transfer obligations for 150 megawatts of power purchasing agreements with SDG&E to a project in the Imperial Valley by an unnamed developer. That deal is up in the air, without a guaranteed buyer for the solar energy

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