Bear Peak CEO discusses California community solar and larger scale projects in pipeline

Bear Peak Power is optimistic about its participation in California’s community solar market despite recent policy setbacks, said CEO John France in an interview with NPM.

Right now, the Denver-based company has about 1100 MW of solar and 748 MW of energy storage projects in its portfolio, including site positions in the west that can benefit from California’s Community Solar Program, in addition to its presence in the East and Midwest.

As for the California Community Solar Program that is in development, France said the delays in the program implementation and delays on the decision “are a positive.”

“The initial proposed decision wasn’t the outcome we desired,” France said. “It didn’t go the way we wanted it to go, but I am fairly optimistic.”

All of Bear Peak’s projects in California are with investor-owned utilities (IOUs) and anticipated to be for community solar.

“We were capital conscious and made the right choice by waiting for the proposed decision, we didn’t invest more than we needed,” France said. “Essentially, we placed a bet in a speculative community solar market, and it was proportional in site quantity, but we didn’t invest too much capital and take too much risk. Whether the final program is feasible or not, our decisions made any outcome low-risk to the company with significant upside if it works out.”

In other states, Bear Peak is working on getting roughly 203 MW NTP in Pennsylvania. Though the company is mostly focused on DG development, where projects fall under 5 MW in range, there are larger projects in its pipeline as well.

In West Virginia, Bear Peak has a paired project for 51 MW solar and 50 MW energy storage, which has obtained its conditional use permit from PJM.

Additionally, it has two 200 MW standalone energy storage projects in upstate New York sited on retired coal plants.

France said that Bear Peak pays attention to where new policies are being introduced, such as Alaska and West Virginia, and said that the company will stay focused on DG “where we think the best opportunities exist.”

Even with the rise of data centers in the industry, France said there will be room for DG to be utilized to help meet the increasing power demands.

“One of the most relevant things to happen in the last eight months is the amount of data centers required to fuel the wave of AI,” he said. “It is probably one of the greatest tailwinds we’ve had since the Investment Tax Credit because the more energy needed, the more power plants will be needed. I think it is an all-in approach. More is better.”

Interconnection

France said that, historically, DG projects tended to go through interconnection queues faster. Now, generally that still holds true but depends on the state program. Otherwise, in some instances, he said it can take three-to-five years.

“There are fewer and fewer of those opportunities,” he said, though pointed to Maryland and Pennsylvania as places with a reasonable process.

“Even the utility-scale New York batteries take time, but the main thing is we know the timelines,” he said. “It’s where it is vague and ever changing, where it is more open-ended, that it’s harder to operate and adhere to a schedule.”

France said that New York is a great example of a state that is easier to operate in due to timelines.

Tariffs

With the new tariffs announced by the White House recently, France said that it will obviously drive costs up.

“It probably won’t be worse than it was when there was a supply chain crunch,” France said. “The pricing has decreased fairly significantly since the highs, so I would anticipate a short-term increase in pricing for equipment, but then over time it will go back down as more countries start manufacturing and domestic production increases.”

In addition, he pointed out that there are imports coming in from other countries than just China.

*This story was originally published exclusively for NPM subscribers last month.

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