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Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Southern Co. & Turner Buy Vermejo Ranch Solar Plant
By Michael Hartranft
Copyright © 2010 Albuquerque Journal Journal Staff Writer
The firm that will build the 30-megawatt Cimarron I solar project in northeast New Mexico has sold the project to a large Georgia-based utility and a company founded by Ted Turner.
Tempe, Ariz.-headquarter First Solar Inc. announced Monday the project has been acquired by the Southern Company and Turner Renewable Energy.
A news release issued by Southern, which has 4.4 million customers in the southeast U.S., said the project would be the first under a partnership formed in January with Turner, who owns the Vermejo Park Ranch in Colfax County where the projected will be located.
The sale will not affect Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association's plans to purchase all of the project's electricity under a 25-year contract signed with First Solar last year. Tri-State provides power to 44 electric cooperatives in four states, including 12 in New Mexico.
"The project, as far as its development, is on the same timeline and we're still expecting it to be fully operational by the end of the year," Tri-State spokesman Jim Van Someren said.
The project will consist of 500,000, 2-foot by 4-foot photovoltaic panels and generate enough power to serve the equivalent needs of about 9,000 homes. It is expected to create 120 to 140 construction jobs.
First Solar spokesman Alan Bernheimer said First Solar will stay involved in the project.
"We're doing the engineering and the procurement of all the materials that will go on through the year," he said. "Then we have an operating and maintenance agreement with Southern-Turner to perform these services for 25 years."
Building and selling utility-scale solar projects is part of First Solar's business model, Bernheimer said. He said a 21-megawatt project finished last fall in Blythe, Calif., was sold to NRG Energy of New Jersey.
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