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Tioga Energy’s SurePath Solar power purchase agreement has become publicly available through the company’s website. The online PPA can be viewed online, with annotations to explain the PPA in common terms, and downloaded in an editable form free of charge.
“The economics of solar must be improved in order to sustain industry growth and ultimately contribute a significant portion of power to our grid,” said Paul Detering, CEO of Tioga Energy. “PPAs are a driving force behind the expansion of the commercial, institutional and industrial solar electric markets in the United States, and there are significant cost savings to be had by reducing the resources required to negotiate these contracts. Our ‘open source’ PPA is the first step in realizing those savings, providing greater transparency and helping customers to understand this document. We encourage viewers to provide feedback on how we can further improve our PPA and look forward to establishing a dialogue with the larger community.”
Tioga assures that its SurePath Solar PPA allows for organizations to install on-site solar systems without high upfront capital costs. The PPA outlines how Tioga will build, operate and distribute solar electric projects for 15 to 20 years and sell the electricity produced to its customers at predictable and lower rates than the local utility.
“The PPA is a highly specialized contract that must meet the needs of a variety of stakeholders, including tax investors, project developers and customers,” said Marc Roper, vice president of sales and marketing for Tioga Energy. “We see a lot of resources going toward the drafting and negotiation of these agreements, and it’s clear that some of this expense can be avoided. We feel that by placing our proven, annotated contract in the public domain and offering it as a free template, we will immediately impact transactional costs.”
Detering concluded, “Entering into a solar PPA should be more like executing a home mortgage and less like refinancing the national debt. I believe our industry has matured to the point where we can collaborate with interested parties to establish a fair, uniform commercial contract that best meets the needs of all involved. Tioga would be happy to help drive forward such an initiative; in the meantime, we will continue to do our part to chip away at this issue.”
Access to the SurePath Solar PPA can be found here.
