North America’s largest solar energy services provider, SunEdison, and Xcel Energy’s regional operating company, Southwestern Public Service Company, today announced a deal for five photovoltaic (PV) solar installations in New Mexico. Together the installations will total 50 megawatts (mWs) of solar generation capacity — enough to power more than 10,000 homes. To be sited in Lea and Eddy counties in southeastern New Mexico, the five 10 mW utility-scale installations should be fully operational by the end of 2011.
“We are thrilled to begin harvesting New Mexico’s rich solar resources, and we are equally proud to add this project to our growing base of wind energy, as we diversify our renewable energy portfolio,” stated Riley Hill, president and CEO of Southwestern Public Service Company, an Xcel Energy company. “We are also pleased to be working with SunEdison, a leader in solar development with the experience and financial strength to ensure a smooth project completion.”
As an investor-owned utility, Xcel Energy is obligated to meet New Mexico’s renewable portfolio standard, which requires regulated utilities to by 2015 source at least 15 percent of their electricity from renewable resources. By 2020, that figure is set to rise to 20 percent. The deal with SunEdison, a subsidiary of MEMC, will enable Xcel to continue to meet its renewable-energy requirements.
The corporate press release highlights the following features of the announced deal:
- The projects will power more than 10,000 homes in the first full year of operation, producing 110 million kilowatt-hours (kWhs)
- Over a 20-year life span, the installations will produce over two billion kWhs of clean solar energy — enough to power over 187,000 homes for an entire year
- The projects will, also over a 20-year period, offset more than 1.3 million metric tons of carbon-dioxide, the equivalent of taking almost 300,000 cars off the road for one year
Great news from SunEdison and Xcel Energy: fueling more than 10,000 homes with five new PV solar installations in New Mexico! Five new 10MW facilities operational by the end of 2011 means clean, renewable solar power for ten thousand homes in the Southwest!
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