Can anyone here help me with a question I have regarding the public's access to government contract data? As an example, I am wondering if there are tools out there to be able to request or view information on the many contracts local governments sign with say solar project developers to build a solar project in a community. I imagine this to be something a local county's website hosts deep in its depths (deep enough that a google search is not cutting it 😅 ).
For instance, from this article, it seems the City of Fresno as the landowner is facilitating the development of a 10MW solar farm. I'd like to know if, as tax payers, we have access to the terms of such deals (like $/KWh savings etc).
My end goal is to understand the typical $/KWh costs these PPA providers are entering for my independent research. I can't seem to find this info on their websites.
by weakyleaky
4 comments
Your local Country Board / Office will have the contract on file for view.
It is one of the best things in America government contracts are available to view. In most other countries the contracts are “In Commercial Confdendence”.
Wood Mackenzie is used across the industry. Unsure if they provide free resources but may be be with looking into.
You’re likely going to have a hard time finding current or recent pricing information for PPAs from any entity. This is generally considered market sensitive information and is treated confidentially by most parties, for several reasons including the competitiveness of future contracting ability of entities that enter into PPAs. The reasoning is that fair arms length transactions must allow for some uncertainty in knowing what either side has been willing to buy or sell in the recent past, in the hope that current or future negotiations will not be prejudiced or disadvantaged by informational asymmetry.
With that said, there are a variety of resources that can help you gain a more generalized view. EIA is a good one for this. IIRC, the CPUC (and possibly the CEC) publish reports on the success of near-term reliability capacity and long term capacity procurement for entities within their jurisdiction—these reports may include pricing information. You may be able to see some info from public documents provided by municipal utilities and various public (non-redacted portions of) filings by utilities and resource developers. These would include reports to their leadership or filings with regulatory agencies such as the CPUC, CEC, FERC, and SEC.
If it’s not already apparent, there are whole cottage industries that exist to glean valuable information from publicly available information. It’s not straightforward.
LevelTen [tracks](https://www.leveltenenergy.com/ppa) PPA pricing. Might be useful.