Xcel Energy on Friday selected Baltimore's SunEdison to build the largest solar electric farm in Colorado.
The 8-megawatt solar farm, capable of powering more than 2,600 homes along the Front Range and other parts of Colorado, would be built in the San Luis Valley near Alamosa.
Xcel has said the project could cost an estimated $60 million and go online before the end of 2007.
The utility, which serves 1.3 million electric ratepayers in Colorado, chose SunEdison after spending months reviewing bids from several other companies since announcing the project in March.
"The (decision) was pretty quick for an RFP process," said Xcel spokesman Tom Henley, referring to the request-for-proposal, or bidding, process.
Henley said the project would use two types of solar technologies, making it the largest of its kind in the United States.
SunEdison last month became the nation's largest commercial photovoltaic contractor after it acquired Team Solar Inc., a PV installer from Northern California, according to its news release.
A call to Jigar Shah, SunEdison's chief executive, was not returned.
"There haven't been that many utility-scale photovoltaic projects in the country, so this is pioneering in many respects," said Gary Schmitz, a spokesman for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden.
Schmitz said solar power from photovoltaic panels, on average, costs about 22 cents to 25 cents per kilowatt/hour. That compares with 4 cents to 6 cents per kwh for wind power. But NREL expects the "cost to come down substantially in the next 10 years," Schmitz said.
Pat Vincent, president and chief executive of Public Service Company of Colorado, an Xcel subsidiary that is the largest electric and gas utility in the state, will formally announce the project Monday.
Xcel must install about 18 megawatts of solar power through 2010 to comply with renewable energy standards outlined in Amendment 37.
Approved by voters in November 2004, the mandate requires Xcel to acquire 10 percent of its electricity sales from renewable sources such as wind, sun, or plant and animal waste through 2015. At least 4 percent of that must come from solar energy.
Henley said Xcel will be in compliance with the standards on wind energy through 2018, after it installs 775 megawatts of new wind projects by the end of 2007. Xcel already has 282 megawatts of wind power in its system.
The mandate also requires half the solar power to come from customers. Xcel would get the rest from the San Luis farm.
Because solar and wind power are intermittent in nature, Xcel estimates 1 megawatt serves roughly 330 customers.
More than 90 Xcel customers have installed solar systems at homes and businesses for a total of more than 350 kilowatts - less than 5 percent of the requirement. Xcel has paid more than $1 million in rebates to solar customers since the program debuted in March and is reviewing an additional 210 rebate applications.
The utility has earmarked a total of $20 million this year for the rebate program, as well as a portion of the cost of the solar farm.
Xcel collects six-tenths of 1 percent of the electric portion of a monthly bill from ratepayers, an average of 36 cents a month. The money pays for the solar and wind energy programs.
Xcel's solar electric farm
Contractor: Baltimore-based SunEdison LLC
Where: San Luis Valley
Cost: Estimated at $60 million
Capacity: 8 megawatts, enough to power more than 2,600 homes
Schedule: Online by the end of 2007
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