ARMY OFFERS $7BIL, AIMS FOR 25% NEW ENERGY BY 2025

FAQ on Army's $7 Billion Draft RFP for Renewable Energy
March 14, 2012 (Stoel Rives LLP)

"On February 24, 2012, the U.S. Army Engineering & Support Center issued a draft request for proposals for renewable and alternative energy (the "Draft RFP")…It is only a draft…The Army is accepting comments until March 21, 2012…The Draft RFP does not set a date for release of the final RFP, which will take the form of a Multi-Award Task Order Contract (the "MATOC/Final RFP")…

"…[F]our fundamental things: (1) the MATOC will not likely offer the opportunity to bid on any specific project (i.e., a "seed project") because the Draft RFP covers multiple technologies, (2) the Army will grant multiple awards under the MATOC, (3) awards granted under the MATOC give awardees the right to bid on individual Task Order contracts issued by specific facilities for specific projects (e.g., a Task Order for a 10 MW solar PV project at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington), (4) parties that are not awardees in the MATOC process may not bid on these Task Orders. Thus, a developer must be an awardee under the MATOC/Final RFP in order to have the right to bid on individual project development opportunities…"

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"...Section 2852 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2007 (Pub. L. No. 109-364) codifies the Department of Defense's ("DoD") voluntary goal to produce or procure 25% of its total electricity consumption from renewable energy sources by 2025. This is not a Congressional mandate; however, the DoD is taking the goal very seriously…[T]he Army estimated that an investment of up to $7.1 billion over the next 10 years would be required to procure 2.1 million megawatt-hours ("MWh") annually to meet Army goals and federal mandates, and to provide enhanced energy security. The Draft RFP is the next step…

"The Draft RFP sets out specific quantities of power, in total kilowatt-hours ("kWh") that the Army intends to procure through each of four types of contracts: (1) Solar PPA, (2) Wind PPA, (3) Biomass PPA, and (4) Geothermal PPA…[T]he period of performance of those contracts is 30 years… If the proposed procurement quantities are to be delivered over 30 years, and assuming a range of capacity factors for each technology type, we anticipate that the total installed MW…would yield…slightly more than half of the annual procurement that the ASA IE&E, in its August 10, 2011 information paper, estimated would be required to meet the Army's renewable energy needs…"