By David Wichner
Arizona Daily Star
If you’d like to discuss energy issues, contact Court Rich, Co-Chair of Rose Law Group’s Renewable Energy Department at crich@roselawgroup.com
Fields northwest of Tucson that once yielded cotton by the ton are now producing clean electrical power, at the biggest solar power plant to be connected to Tucson Electric Power Co.’s power grid to date.
The Avra Valley Solar Generating Station, a 34-megawatt (DC – direct current) photovoltaic plant built by California-based NRG Solar a few miles west of Marana, was dedicated Thursday on a 300-acre expanse of reclaimed cotton fields.
“In my mind, we’re replacing one type of farming with another,” Randy Hickok, senior vice president of NRG, said during a dedication ceremony. “When it was cotton, farmers were turning sunlight into the clothes on our backs, and now we’re using the same property to use sunlight to essentially sustain civilization – it’s helping keep the lights on, without the pollution.”
TEP will buy power from the solar farm, which can generate enough power to meet the annual energy needs of about 5,000 homes, under a 20-year power purchase agreement with NRG, which owns and operates the plant. The thin-film photovoltaic system, which creates electricity, was made by Tempe-based First Solar.
Against a backdrop of solar panels that seemed to stretch out as far as the eye can see, TEP Chairman and CEO Paul Bonavia said the solar plant represents the future of energy.
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