By Ryan Randazzo | The Arizona Republic
Officials celebrated the completion of a massive power plant west of Phoenix on Friday, just a week after a similar giant solar plant nearby celebrated a construction milestone.
The Mesquite Solar facility owned by Sempra U.S. Gas and Power has a capacity of 150 megawatts and sends its power to California.
Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett attended the dedication ceremony about 50 miles west of downtown Phoenix. He said projects such as Mesquite are important to the state’s economy, “to use the resources that God has provided us.”
“This (power plant) is the culmination of what we’ve been trying to do for a long time,” he said of the state’s efforts to create jobs in the renewable-energy industry.
The power plant created about 500 construction jobs from October 2011 until it was finished late last year. About a dozen employees maintain the plant.
Buckeye Mayor Jackie Meck attended and said that Sempra and its contractors helped his office issue weekly e-mails to Buckeye residents advertising the job openings that were available during the plant’s construction.
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
