Green Valley News & Sun
Work begins this week on the area’s largest solar farm off Pima Mine Road near Sahuarita, expected to be producing enough electricity to power 7,000 homes by late this year.
The Avalon Solar project, also known as the Pima Mine Road Generating Facility, is a 35-megawatt, renewable-energy production plant, which plans to supply electricity to Tucson Electric Power in a collaboration also involving Asarco and Clenera. The photovoltaic plant will be erected on 491 acres of Asarco mining property, about a mile and a half north of Pima Mine Road and west of Nogales Highway, far from any neighbors, on county-approved zoning.
It will be owned by Avalon Solar Partners LLC, a subsidiary of Equator Solar of Albuquerque, an arm of Equator Capital Group of Washington, D.C., which develops worldwide. The company has a 20-year-agreement to sell electricity to TEP. The project is expected to create 300 construction jobs and four permanent maintenance and security jobs, and generate $4 million in county property taxes.
If you’d like to discuss energy issues, contact Court Rich, director of Rose Law Group’s Renewable Energy Department at crich@roselawgroup.com
