SunEdison to build 150 MW solar plant in West Texas

GEORGETOWN, Texas – Georgetown, Texas, a city of 55,000 people about 30 minutes north of Austin, has announced that it has committed to supplying its customers with 100 percent renewable energy exclusively from solar and wind energy.

The city will be working with SunEdison which plans to build a 150 MW solar plant in West Texas to supply the city with solar power through 2041. The agreement with SunEdison, along with an existing 144 MW wind power agreement the French utility Électricité de France SA, or EDF, will make the city one of the largest municipally-owned utilities in the U.S. to supply its customers with 100 percent solar and wind energy.

The planned solar plants will be interconnected in 2016 and will provide over 9,500 gigawatt hours of solar energy to Georgetown to power more than 24,000 homes each year for 25 years. Upon completion, SunEdison expects to offer this project for investment to TerraForm Power, a global owner and operator of clean energy power plants.

The purchase agreement is one of the largest solar agreements in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) jurisdiction, and represents the largest utility scale solar agreement that SunEdison has signed in Texas to date.

SunEdison is planning to begin construction of the solar plants later this year in West Texas. It’s estimated the project will create 800 jobs during construction.

— Solar Builder magazine

[source: http://solarbuildermag.com/news/sunedison-to-build-150-mw-solar-plant-in-west-texas/]