SunEdison Inc. is expanding its presence in the US state of Utah, where it will develop three solar-power projects with a total capacity of 262 megawatts.
The three solar power plants are located in Iron County in southern Utah, and include the 63-MW Granite Mountain Solar West plant, the 100-MW Granite Mountain Solar East plant and the 99-MW Iron Springs Solar plant. Construction of the power plants is expected to begin in the fall of 2015 with commercial operations expected in 2016.
PacifiCorp, an electric utility that serves 1.8 million residential, commercial, and industrial customers, will purchase the electricity through three 20-year power purchase agreements according to its obligation under the federal Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act. The purchase agreements and the price of the electricity will be at the utility’s avoided cost of electricity, which reflects the utility’s costs to purchase or generate the power from other resources. The contract will have to be approved by the Utah Public Service Commission to ensure a fair price for PacifiCorp customers.
The projects are on the Call Right Projects List for TerraForm Power Inc. and SunEdison anticipates offering these projects to TerraForm Power for investment upon completion.
SunEdison has been expanding its presence in Utah, where it has 720MW of solar projects in development and 306MW in operation.
