OCI Solar Power is working to keep the U.S. a global leader in solar development and enlisting the help of landowners to make this goal a reality. OCI Vice President of Development Krista Kisch said Texas landowners willing to sell their plots for renewable energy development will make future projects possible.

“Texas landowners are pragmatic about multiple uses for their properties. Solar (PV) power is a passive system, which requires minimal water needs and minimal maintenance,” said Kisch.

OCI Solar Power is looking for landowners to get in touch to discuss potential development opportunities. Development of solar projects is beneficial for all involved— it provides financial benefits for landowners, who in turn can feel good about adding to the clean energy supply. Use of the land is negotiable on multiple terms. Landowners have the option of leasing or selling land depending on the financial benefit they seek.

“Solar projects are ideal because they generate the most electricity during peak demand hours during the day and summer months, so it’s a natural fit” said Kisch. “Texas landowners can have a direct impact on addressing electric system shortfalls with solar power.”

Interested parties may inquire by calling 210-453-3100 or emailing development@ocisolarpower.com.

By Chris Warren

It takes Raul Altamirano all of a few seconds to launch into the many, many reasons he was eager to leave his job as a welder fabricating oil storage tanks. Although he was a foreman, Altamirano was making less than some of the workers he was supervising and the promises his employer made about a raise just never seemed to pan out. Even worse, just to clock in for a day of work required Altamirano to drive nearly 50 miles from his home in south San Antonio to an oil field near Seguin. Besides taking him away from his three young children for long work days, the cost of filling up his truck to make the commute became financially impossible when Altamirano’s overtime hours disappeared. “I sometimes couldn’t afford to go to work,” he says.

So he quit. These days, Altamirano spends his working hours in a squat, nearly windowless building on Binz-Engleman Road. And he couldn’t be happier. Not only is the pay better and his commute easy and cheap, Altamirano still gets to work as a welder in the energy industry. The big difference is that his job now—for Ercam Trackers, the U.S. subsidiary of a Spanish company—is in the still nascent but quickly growing solar industry. “I thought it was a great opportunity,” says Altamirano, who now helps assemble trackers, equipment that move solar panels to follow the trajectory of the sun through the sky in order to produce more energy. “Going green in San Antonio and making jobs here was a big deal to me.”

Altamirano will soon have plenty of colleagues. The welder is one of the first members of what will be a hundreds-strong—at least 805, to be precise—solar workforce arising in the city during the next few years. Signs of this emerging industry were all over the place this winter. At Ercam’s makeshift leased operation, welders like Altamirano busily put together the factory lines that will soon churn out trackers. Elsewhere, Mayor Julián Castro joined a host of hard hat-clad executives in February for a groundbreaking ceremony for Nexolon America’s solar panel factory, which will eventually employ 400 at its site on the former Brooks Air Force Base. On the 26th floor of the Bank of America building downtown, OCI Solar Power, a developer and owner/operator of solar power plants, has opened up its new corporate headquarters, which until June 2012 was in Atlanta. The sorts of jobs coming to San Antonio will run the gamut, from blue-collar positions like Altamirano’s welding job, to engineers and designers and finance and administration professionals. “It’s the whole range of employees that are normal in a manufacturing company,” says Manuel Rodriguez, the CEO of Ercam Trackers, which plans to hire 65 new workers by the end of this year and, ultimately, will employ 190 as it builds its own factory and expands production.

By Texas standards, San Antonio has been a solar pioneer for years. In 2008 the Department of Energy named it one of 25 Solar America Cities, thanks to the city’s comprehensive plan to encourage solar development through financial incentives and streamlining bureaucracy. And for years the nonprofit group Solar San Antonio, under the leadership of its founder Bill Sinkin, who turns 100 this month, has been forging public-private partnerships and educating locals about the great promise of solar. What is happening now, though, is already catapulting San Antonio to national solar prominence. “This consortium of manufacturing will now make it [San Antonio] synonymous with solar,” promises Tony Dorazio, president of OCI Solar Power, as he sits in a conference room with spectacular views of his new hometown. If that does actually come to fruition, it will be in line with the state’s long energy legacy. “It’s big wind, it’s big oil and big gas,” he says. “So why can’t it be big solar?”

San Antonio’s emergence as a key player in the U.S. solar industry didn’t just happen as a result of this being a place that gets a lot of sunshine, although that certainly doesn’t hurt. San Antonio’s gambit to become the city that provides the solar panels and other equipment that gets installed in large fields and atop the roofs of homes and businesses from Arizona to New Jersey started with the city going on a solar buying binge.

Last January CPS Energy, the municipal utility that provides electricity to San Antonio’s homeowners and businesses, announced its intention to purchase 400 megawatts of electricity from newly constructed solar power plants. While that number may be meaningless to many, it’s impressive in context. It’s enough clean energy to keep the lights, TVs and computers humming in 70,000 homes, or for about 10 percent of CPS’ customers. More impressively, 400 megawatts is a very large proportion of the entire American solar market, which has routinely doubled in size from one year to the next. For instance, in 2012, a record year for new solar in the United States, the third-largest state market was New Jersey, which added 415 megawatts, followed by Nevada at 198 megawatts. Although it’s always hard to predict future trends, it is safe to say for the next few years, San Antonio will be a much larger market for solar than the vast majority of states. Not bad for one city.

The many reasons CPS decided to go big with solar include the call for an increase in solar power in the city’s SA2020 plan, as well as CPS’ own Vision2020 goal to generate 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. According to CPS President and CEO Doyle Beneby, the heart of the decision was economic. One of the big expenses utilities face comes from meeting federal clean air regulations. By building a lot of solar, which emits none of the sulfur dioxide and other pollutants that must be limited, CPS can avoid spending hundreds of millions of dollars to retrofit its already existing coal plants to comply with federal law.

The benefits of solar are also helpful financially in other ways, particularly in meeting “peak demand”—between 5 and 7 p.m. in the summer when people get home from work and crank up their air conditioners and other appliances and electronics. If this spike in the need for energy outstrips the supply CPS has available, the utility would have to buy extremely expensive energy from the open market to keep its customers cool and happy. Solar will be especially helpful during times of peak demand because panels can crank out electricity when it’s most desperately needed.

While all of this was essential to CPS’s decision, Beneby says that he also saw this as a rare opportunity to create a new industry in San Antonio. “We have used it as a means to attract economic development here,” he says. “We were very keen on jobs; we were very keen on capital investment. In other words, we really wanted [companies] to drop anchor here and make a commitment to create a manufacturing base here.” CPS opted not to take on the construction involved in the five phases of its solar initiative. Instead, it issued a request for proposal to the global solar industry—one that attracted interest from more than 100 companies—to come to San Antonio, set up shop and begin work to fulfill CPS’s large solar order. When the bids and jockeying were all completed, OCI Solar emerged in July 2012 as the winner, along with its partner companies Ercam Trackers, Nexolon and Kaco New Energy, a company that makes equipment that converts the direct current (DC) energy solar produces into the alternating current (AC) type needed to run DVD players and dishwashers. Besides creating at least 805 solar-related manufacturing jobs, the deal promises to deliver $700 million in annual economic impact and $1 billion in construction investment.

Of course, even one very large project does not a long-term industry make. Jin Soo Noh, director of business development for Nexolon America, the company that will produce solar panels, says that San Antonio provides some much needed breathing room to enter the North and South American markets. In other words, the big order of panels from CPS will keep its factory here busy while it competes to supply the equipment needed for solar plants elsewhere. “We can secure the market for years thanks to the good project between CPS and OCI Solar Power,” he says. “This gives us the opportunity to penetrate into the U.S. market but also the South American market, which is emerging.” San Antonio’s location near southwestern states, such as Arizona and New Mexico, where huge solar power plants are going into the deserts, and the quickly growing markets of Chile and Brazil is also regarded as ideal.

If everything works as planned, outsiders will someday think of the power of the sun just as much as they do the Spurs and the Alamo when they contemplate San Antonio. “We want an industry that stays here for decades,” says OCI Solar’s Dorazio. “It’s going to happen.”

This article appears in the May 2013  issue of San Antonio Magazine.

“I think it is important for students to learn about solar power because like students, solar energy is our future,” said Gleason. “The future success of our state, country and planet is dependent on people making a transition from nonrenewable and environmentally-destructive fossil fuels to cleaner sources of energy like solar power. Students need to be made aware of
the environmental issues that they will face in their lifetime, so they can know the possibilities for future sources of energy.”

OCI Solar Power President Tony Dorazio said his team is taking steps to ensure that education is a top priority.

“I am glad to see students showing interest in solar power,” said Dorazio. “Tom is correct. Years from now, we will all be affected by the clean energy decisions being made today. We’re creating opportunities for young people to get involved with solar power, and we’re here as a resource for them.”

OCI Solar Power team members will be onsite to answer students’ questions as well as discuss potential job opportunities with engineering students. OCI Solar Power will feature a solar display including a photovoltaic panel and example installation site images as part of its participation in Earth Day.

San Antonio-based OCI Solar Power broke ground at its Blue Wing Road site to officially mark the start of construction of this landmark project. At 41 MW, Alamo I represents the first phase of construction on the mega solar agreement that will deliver clean, renewable energy to CPS Energy as part of a 25-year power purchase agreement.

“The Alamo project provides a blueprint for a public-private partnership model that can stimulate renewable energy development around the country,” said OCI Solar Power President Tony Dorazio. “Through its commitment to the environment and the economy, CPS Energy is powering its customers with clean renewable energy, while attracting renewable energy-related companies and manufacturing that promote economic development and good jobs.”

Several local San Antonio renewable energy-focused manufacturing companies will provide major components required to build the project. Nexolon America LLC will manufacture the high efficiency solar panels; ERCAM Trackers will produce the patented, two-axis photovoltaic (PV) solar trackers as well as single- and fixed-axis trackers; and KACO new energy will supply the photovoltaic inverter and power electronics.

Alamo I will be completed by year-end and will provide power to nearly 7,000 San Antonio households. Upon completion in late 2016, the entire 400 MW project will power 70,000 local households or 10% of San Antonio’s customers.

With more than 40 projects ranging from three to 400 MW throughout the U.S., OCI Solar Power is creating new standards for partnerships and community development. In addition to providing the local community with a renewable, cost-effective solar power source, the 400 MW project brings more than $1 billion in construction investment, creates 800 permanent professional and technical jobs and will have a projected annual economic impact of $700 million. The San Antonio project places Texas in the top five U.S. solar energy-producing states.

“This project signals San Antonio’s continued emergence as a leader in the New Energy Economy,” said San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro. “This phase is only the first of many milestones to come bringing good-paying jobs and fostering economic development and sustainable energy for our community and state.”

The building permits for OCI Solar Power’s newest solar development project, Alamo I, are in and the site is now under construction on Blue Wing Road in San Antonio, Texas. At 41 MW, Alamo I represents the first phase of a 400 MW solar power project delivering clean, renewable energy to CPS Energy, the municipal utility for the city, under a 25-year power purchase agreement.

The first phase of the project will be completed by the end of 2013, and plans for the remaining megawatts will be built through 2016. The groundbreaking ceremony for Alamo 1 will be held in early March.

“We’re looking forward to continuing our work with the San Antonio community,” said Tony Dorazio, president of OCI Solar Power. “The development of each phase of the project gets us closer and closer to bringing clean, renewable energy to homes and businesses throughout the area.”

The downtown office market over the past half decade has been plagued by the exodus of a major office user, AT&T Inc., and a trend toward suburban flight.
Both trends, however, appear to be coming to an end, says Larry Mendez, senior vice president of the local office of real-estate brokerage firm Transwestern.
Some of the proof, he says, lies in a slate of leases that were inked over the course of 2012 at Bank of America Plaza — one of a handful of high-profile office properties in the city’s central business district.

All told, new leases, expansions and renewals resulted in 90,399 square feet worth of leasing activity over the past year at the property, which is located at 300 Convent. Of that, leases involving some 35,000 square feet space were signed in the last month of 2012, and most of those deals are for new corporate arrivals to the Alamo City, Mendez adds.

The deals at Bank of America Plaza mark one of the latest coups for downtown, he adds. “We are starting to get critical mass downtown,” Mendez says. “I feel very bullish about the opportunities for downtown.”

Mendez and fellow Transwestern broker Brad Kaufman represented the landlord, Talcott II Alamo Ltd., in the lease transactions at the Bank of America Plaza.
The Bank of America Plaza deals mark the latest win for Transwestern, which also helped to backfill space at another prominent downtown building, IBC Centre — which spans a total of 370,000 square feet over two buildings at 130 E. Travis and 175 E. Houston.

Over the first two weeks of September 2011, Transwestern helped to negotiate sizable leases with two tenants, HVHC Inc. and Argo Group US Inc., at IBC Centre. Those two tenants occupy a total of 190,006 square feet of space — helping to backfill the roughly 300,000 square feet that AT&T vacated at IBC Centre when it moved its headquarters to Dallas in 2008.

Mendez and Transwestern broker Scott Wolff represented IBC Centre’s owner, IBC Bank, in the HVHC and Argo leases.

Partnership
Much of the credit, says Mendez and others, goes to the city of San Antonio and its efforts to make downtown a more attractive option for office users.
The moves of both Argo and HVHC, for example, were incentivized. The former’s agreement with the city calls for Argo to receive free parking for up to 300 spaces at the St. Mary’s garage downtown for 10 years — a deal valued at approximately $2.85 million.

Meanwhile, HVHC is receiving more than $4 million in incentives — including a cash grant of some $1 million, payable over the next two years, and approximately $2.9 million in parking subsidies for the St. Mary’s garage. Both Argo and HVHC relocated downtown from leased spaces on the city’s North Central Side.
This “incentivized momentum” for the downtown office market can serve as the catalyst for bringing other office users to the center city — without incentives, says Kim Gatley, senior vice president and director of research for local real estate firm NAI REOC San Antonio.

“We have to start the ball somewhere,” she says. “Downtown is a challenged market. It will take a lot to get it moving.”

The fourth-quarter 2012 office statistics from NAI REOC highlight some of the challenges the downtown submarket still faces. Over the 12 months ended Dec. 31, 2012, the center-city submarket posted negative absorption (space returned to the market) of some 333,000 square feet of space, NAI REOC reports.

By comparison, over that same time period, the suburban office market posted positive absorption (a net gain in leased space) of more than 496,000 square feet.
The vacancy rate for the central business district now sits at above 30 percent. By comparison, the suburban office market reported a vacancy rate of 17.3 percent as of fourth-quarter 2012, per the latest NAI REOC analysis.

“It’s going to take a lot to reverse this trend (of suburban flight)” says Gatley. The relocation of companies like HVHC and Argo are like a game of checkers that may be good for downtown, but such horizontal moves do little to shore up the city’s office market as a whole, she adds.

Still, even incentivized horizontal moves are a start, say Gatley and others. “There are tremendous things happening,” Mendez adds. “The snowball is starting to roll down the hill. We have tenants that desire and truly want to be in downtown San Antonio,”

Destination downtown
Not all the tenants moving into downtown offices are from the city’s outlying areas, however. OCI Solar Power, which is relocating its headquarters from Atlanta to the Alamo City, inked a lease for 15,545 square feet at Bank of America Plaza this past December for its corporate offices, Mendez says.

Even the local companies that have relocated to downtown are championing the the central business district as a place to do business. “To be a part of Mayor (Julían) Castro’s downtown revitalization activities … has been a winning combination for all of us,” says David Holmberg, CEO of HVHC Inc., one of the country’s largest providers of managed vision-care and services. HVHC is the parent company of several optical retail brands, including Eyemasters.

Holmberg continues: “Our companies and associates … are committed to doing their part to help continue to transform downtown San Antonio into a great place to live, work and do business.”

OCI Solar Power recruiters will be onsite to discuss employment opportunities and to answer any questions regarding careers in the solar power industry. All Texas A&M System students are invited to attend the career fair exhibition. No registration is necessary. For more information about the event, go to http://sec.tamu.edu/.

OCI Solar Power and its consortium partners are exhibitors at the Veteran Symposium & Expo, which will be held on Thursday, January 24, at the Villita Assembly Building, 401 Villita, from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The free event, which is hosted by OCI Solar Power’s sustainable energy development partner, CPS Energy, invites veteran-owned businesses to attend and learn about new avenues to grow and expand their business.

Participants will have the opportunity to interact and learn about a variety of CPS Energy departments, local businesses, associations, City and government agencies and other entities with a special interest in veteran business growth in San Antonio. Business owners will also have the opportunity to learn about how to respond to proposals and qualifications, how to handle bonding and insurance requirements and how to better market themselves. OCI Solar Power and its consortium partners will be onsite to inform attendees of upcoming business opportunities.

More information and online registration is available at cpsenergy.com. For questions, contact supplierdiversity@cpsenergy.com or call (210) 353-2474.

The overall solar development project is unique in its size as well as scope, and includes working with the community not only to secure a renewable, cost effective solar power source, but also to drive long-term economic development with investments of more than $100 million in capital projects. In addition, the project is expected to create more than 800 permanent jobs once all phases are complete.

“The development of Alamo 1 is an exciting and highly anticipated project,” said Tony Dorazio, president of OCI Solar Power. “Its long-term impact on the area – boosting the economy and creating jobs – reinforces our commitment to form valuable and trusted relationships with the communities we serve.”

The solar power plant is being constructed with leading solar PV technology. Single- and dual axis trackers allow the solar panels to track the sun through the day and adjust to seasonal variances to optimize the efficiency of the power plant.