Posted: Monday, September 25, 2006 12:00 am
DENVER (AP) - Xcel Energy has selected a Baltimore firm to build a $60 million solar electric plant in Colorado, the largest solar power project in the country, the Rocky Mountain News reported Saturday.
Minneapolis-based Xcel, with 1.3 million ratepayers in Colorado, plans to build the 8-megawatt solar farm in the San Luis Valley, near Alamosa. The plant, expected to go online by the end of next year, would be capable of powering 2,600 homes.
The project went up for bid in March. Xcel plans to announce the contract Monday, but the newspaper on Saturday reported Baltimore's SunEdison had been selected to build the plant.
Xcel spokesman Tom Henley on Saturday said the company was not commenting on the report. A news conference is scheduled for Monday.
SunEdison last month acquired California's Team Solar Inc., making SunEdison the country's largest commercial photovoltaic solar power installer, according to a company news release.
Gary Schmitz, a spokesman for the National Renewable energy Laboratory in Golden says utility-sized solar projects are rare and the San Luis Valley proposal would be "pioneering."
The solar plant is part of Xcel's response to an initiative approved by voters in 2004 that requires utilities generate at least 10 percent of their electricity with renewable sources as wind and solar power by 2015.
Currently, just under 2 percent of the electricity sold in Colorado comes from renewable sources.
On the Net:
Xcel: www.xcelenergy.com