Recently, in a quiet moment between energy transactions, I
pondered: When does a solar project become a solar project?
It's a philosophical question, perhaps. Thankfully (and not
surprisingly), my colleagues in engineering had a few opinions.
While no two opinions were the same (also not surprising), each
opinion did tie to one concept — interconnection.
In this second installment of How to Value a Solar Development
Pipeline (read Part 1 here), we will explore the second
pillar of project success: interconnection.
It is estimated that there are about 150 gigawatts of solar
projects in interconnection queues across the United States.
Compare that to the 12.1 gigawatts expected to be installed in
this year. Clearly, a queue position is not in itself an indicator
of project success. Interconnection provides the physical path to
deliver power and imposes the physical constraints of such
delivery. Interconnection also represents one of the critical fixed
costs of a
