Back from a lovely vacation time and I've noted quite the progress happening.
New corporate presentation (took almost two years to build) and a revised Sage Ranch website (after removing the issues I pointed out).
Montalva -
"Status: Received full Settlement Agreement from PREPA to approve the contract on October 3rd, 2023. Greenbriar is currently working on refining the details with PREPA and will then seek approval with the FOMB." Shame to see that after (7) months they are still "refining details" with PREPA. Also zero mention of receiving approval from the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau before going straight to the FOMB. It has been over a decade waiting, what's another year of inflation deflating the value of your investment or missing out on an annual average stock market return of 11% for the past ten years.
Interesting they don't mention SiteSelectors LLC as one of their partners. Is it because they (SiteSelectors LLC) are still trying to get their money for finding the Montalva site?
Environmental Impacts are apparently 100% positive. No mention of the very high energy costs related to mining/refining of aluminum, copper, silicon. Quartz refining has incredibly high energy inputs. No mention either about the recycling issues (or lack of recycling) related to solar panels. Alberta has placed a moratorium on solar development for this exact issue, along with the significant volume of productive farms lands being covered with panels. Wind power has huge piles of used fibreglass blades that can't be recycled so are merely being dumped. The rising cost of natural gas as being why the entire Alberta project pipeline has been scrapped is a joke. The Ridge Utilities project was completed by the local community.
I am a solar energy plus storage proponent but don't "Greenwash" it as the be all, end all.
Risk and Mitigants - Electricity cost related Montalva fail to include the cost of transportation and distribution to the end users. They are not comparing the same items. Don't forget the PREPA agreement includes building a new transmission line (remember Jeff being sooo adamant that there was nothing wrong with the line) and throwing in the battery storage for virtually free (compared to other renewable providers). Woohoo, great for the Puerto Rican people if it is ever built but not for shareholders.
"Montalva is the only project actively planned." Seriously? -
https://www.nrel.gov/news/features/2024/puerto-rico-can-reach-its-100-renewable-energy-goal-by-2050.html This project requires an
approved/signed PPOA agreement and
all government approvals (including zoning) in place before it is even financeable. Not something in negotiations for over a decade and the massive costs assosciated with salaries, consulting fees, lawyers, bonuses, over a decade of land leases and yet to be determined cost to the spouse of an AG Solar executive just to name a few items.