E-mail Story
Print Friendly
Send E-mail
Reprint story
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
N.M. solar plant to be one of continent's largest
By Michael Hartranft
Journal Staff Writer
A 250-acre patch of rangeland in northeastern New Mexico will be home to one of the largest solar power plants on the continent.
The Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association and Arizona-based First Solar Inc. announced an agreement Tuesday to develop a 30-megawatt, solar photovoltaic power plant in Colfax County, between Cimarron and Springer.
The plant, dubbed the "Cimarron I Solar Project," will consist of 500,000 2-foot by 4-foot photovoltaic panels and is expected to generate enough energy to serve the equivalent needs of about 9,000 homes, according to the Denver-based Tri-State.
Construction is planned to begin in April 2010, with the plant fully operational by the end of that year. It is expected to create 120 to 140 construction jobs.
"My understanding is that if this project were to be built today, it would be the largest of its kind in North America," said Tri-State spokesman Jim Van Someren.
Tri-State, which supplies wholesale power to 44 electric cooperatives in four states, including 12 co-ops in New Mexico, will purchase power from the plant for 25 years. The project will be within the service territory of the Springer Electric Cooperative.
The agreement calls for First Solar to be the engineering, procurement and construction contractor. It is leasing the property and will also monitor and maintain the site. David Spradlin, general manager of Springer Electric, said the 250 acres are part of Ted Turner's sprawling Vermejo Park Ranch.
Van Someren said Tri-State has an existing 115-kilovolt transmission line adjacent to the site.
"So we don't have to build any additional transmission, except for a substation at the plant," he said.
Financial details, including the construction price tag, fall under a confidentiality agreement, he said.
He said the projected cost per kilowatt hour at the new plant is also covered by the confidentiality agreement, but that Tri-State does not expect to increase its rates to member co-ops because of the project. Its average wholesale rate per kilowatt hour is 6.5 cents.
Individual co-op customers also will not see an increase tied to the plant, Spradlin said. Co-ops set their own rates independent of Tri-State. The statewide average for a residential customer is about 12 cents per kilowatt hour, he said.
In New Mexico, he said, co-op customers are already charged a 1 percent fee in each billing that is put into a fund for conservation and renewable energy to comply with the state Renewable Portfolio Standard, which requires that a certain portion of their power comes from renewable sources.
"That effectively caps the rate impact of any renewable energy projects," Spradlin said. "... There won't be any incremental cost increase because of this project."
Van Someren said electric co-ops in New Mexico are required to meet an renewable portfolio standard of 5 percent by 2015 and 10 percent by 2020.
"This project assists Tri-State in helping our 12 member co-ops meet those obligations, especially given the fact that solar energy qualifies for three times compliance credits under the RPS," he said.
First Solar, founded in 1999, has corporate offices in Tempe, with manufacturing facilities in Ohio, as well as in Malaysia and Germany, a company spokeswoman said.
"Up until recently, we've been extremely active in Europe," he said. "Our move into the U.S. market has been fairly recent."
One of its U.S. projects is the 10-megawatt El Dorado solar plant built for Sempra Generation near Boulder City, Nev. The company announced its completion Dec. 22, less than six months after construction started.
You also can send comments via our comment form
|
|
