Natural Power & Energy (NPE) (No. 52 on the Solar Power World 2014 Top 400 Solar Contractors list)is all at once a developer, contractor and services provider, a fusion of functions the company refers to as the “life-cycle approach.”
“When solar was getting started, we realized general contractors and electrical contractors were bound to get a lot of work, so we started a services division,” says CEO Rob Dallal. “We knew they wouldn’t be able to do it all on their own.”
NPE provides design, engineering, financing and construction services, including system monitoring and O&M. The company hires specialists across the board who understand financing and best practices across the spectrum of business.
“We break up all the key segments of the value chain that are involved in a project from its inception to completion,” says Dallal, whose background is in finance and economics. “Providing these broken-out services to contractors has made us experts in each segment.”
“A big part of the life-cycle approach is looking at each step in the process and thinking about how to build inexpensively and how to design [individual projects] according to best practices to maximize production over the life of the project,” he continues.
Dallal says he’s most proud of NPE’s recent project, an 11-MW system spanning 42 sites in the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD). The project, expected to produce more than 19 million kWh per year, mainly employs shade canopies over fields and playgrounds, with a few canopies over parking lots.
NPE served as the primary developer, overseeing design, construction and financing on the project, which has an anticipated completion date for all phases in Q2 2015. When financing the project, NPE undercut the utilities rates in the area, taking no incentives and allowing TUSD to retain full ownership of the RECs, saving the district more than $11 million over a 20-year period.
TUSD Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, May 13, 2014 with Superintendent H.T. Sánchez (center), NPE President Rob Dallal (far right) and other members of the school district.