(Image | Courtesy of Shasta Power)
Shasta Power is a Bend-based, utility-scale solar power developer that is funded through private placement investor opportunities. Shasta Power was founded as an LLC in March of last year by founders John Copyak, Boris Feldman and Max Roe; respectively, they operate Shasta Power as real estate manager, development manager and strategic manager, along with Ansley Dunning, the project site analyst. The founders have all worked in fields related to solar power for 15 years, and bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table.
Shasta Power operates through the Summit Power Fund; a private fund for accredited investors with a minimum buy-in of $50,000. To qualify as an accredited investor through a net worth test, an individual must either alone or with a spouse have a net worth of over $1 million.
As opposed to investing in stocks or index funds, one of the main draws for investors to Shasta Power is the connection the investor has to making and seeing an actual difference in the environment. The Summit Power Fund exists with the purpose of eliminating coal power and to help the country transition to renewable energy, and according to Copyak, he and his partners founded the fund because they wanted to make a difference, as well.
“If this only made me money, I’d probably do something else,” Copyak said. “We’re all here to make a difference. We’re very idealistic, that way.”
Shasta Power leases a property that they have determined has all the right factors and conditions for the project. Then, they establish an interconnection agreement with a utility company, Pacific Power, for example. Next, they begin surveying the land and completing any environmental, county or other studies that would be required before construction. Once the project is deemed viable, Shasta Power sells it to a larger solar development company that has the capital required to fully build out the project.
“In layman’s terms, we are essentially developing the site and laying the groundwork for larger developers with more capital to build on,” Copyak said.
Having that capital is very important, as some of the larger projects can cost upwards of $200 million to fully construct. At such a large investment for the bigger solar developers, Shasta Power offers a more streamlined and cheaper way to get projects started.
“On an average project, we might spend $2.5 million to lay groundwork, and we can end up selling that site for $10 million to a larger developer,” Copyak said. “The developer ends up saving two years and $15 million, which is made possible because we operate with a very small team compared to a big developer, with way less overhead and a significantly smaller cost.”
When a major solar developer wants to build a large-scale solar farm, they have two main options: attempt to find a property with good irradiance that is easy to connect to the power grid and has a scale of around 1,000 acres and go through all of the legal groundwork themselves, or, work with a greenfielding company like Shasta Power to purchase a property that is guaranteed to have all of the necessary factors. Plus, with Shasta Power, the developer can save money by skipping the cost of laying the groundwork, and they can speed up their total process by two or more years.
“That’s a tough combo to find,” Copyak said. “But one of our biggest values is finding that for the developers.”
This seems like a very sweet deal, and if the success of Shasta Power is any judge, then it can be safe to say that many developers feel the same way. Not only does Shasta Power save on time and stress, but by speeding up the process for developers, Copyak and his team are sticking to their mission to make more of our energy renewable.
“Oregon has a mandate that the state has to run on 100 percent emission-free energy by 2040,” Copyak said. “By speeding up the process for developers, we feel like we’re helping the state reach that goal.”
In the near future, it won’t be unlikely to see more companies like Shasta Power enter the utility-scale solar industry. However, for Shasta Power specifically, the future is filled with constant innovation, utilizing the latest tech and getting investors an annual 30 percent return over five years with very low risk.
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