SRP plans solar-power plant on 150 acres in the SE Valley

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$75 million facility would generate power in lieu of using panels on customers' homes

by Ryan Randazzo -

The Arizona Republic

Salt River Project is planning a massive solar-power plant in the southeast Valley and wants to offer its power to customers instead of having them install panels on their homes to make their own power.

The utility is planning a $75 million, 20-megawatt solar photovoltaic-power plant that would cover about 150 acres, Chief Financial Executive Mark Bonsall said.

While natural-gas or coal-burning power plants might have a capacity of 1,000 megawatts or more, a 20-megawatt photovoltaic plant would be about the 30th largest in the world if it were running today.

The project is the latest in a series of new solar-power plants planned for the state as well as the latest in creative financing

to pay for solar energy, which is typically more costly than traditional power sources.

Several companies now offer leasing arrangements or bulk purchases in Arizona, but the concept of letting people buy into a central power plant is new to the state.

While the plant and its financing still need approval from SRP's elected officials, the plan is to let SRP customers purchase a portion of the electricity from the solar panels as though the panels were on their roofs at home.

"We are just trying to create options," Bonsall said.

One large power plant is more cost-efficient than SRP providing rebates to several hundred homeowners for their own solar-power systems, he said.

With one central power plant, SRP can ensure the panels all are facing the sun properly, purchased and constructed in bulk to save money as well as properly maintained.

"A person in effect would be buying the rights to the output of a unit on their roof," Bonsall said.

"Their power bill would be offset just like a rooftop unit does now."

SRP customers would not have to live near the power plant to participate.

People who put solar panels on their homes are able to reduce the amount of power they buy from their utility because the panels make electricity during the day.

But those systems cost $30,000 to $70,000, and though federal, state and utility incentives can cover about half the expense, it can take several years to recover the investment through lower bills.

SRP hasn't determined how much money it will cost customers to participate in the project or other financial details, such as how much of the output from the plant they will be able to buy.

SRP has selected Iberdrola Renewables Inc., a Spanish company with U.S. headquarters in Portland, Ore., to build the project.

Iberdrola built and opened Arizona's first wind farm this year near Holbrook, and SRP takes all of the power from that project.

Officials would not disclose the parcel of land Iberdrola is trying to secure for the solar plant.

But if the land deal falls through, Bonsall said SRP plans to have Iberdrola build the plant near an SRP substation southeast of Queen Creek, Bonsall said.

Iberdrola is considering using solar panels made by Tempe-based First Solar Inc. but has not settled on a design yet, said John Coggins, SRP's resource-planning manager.

"That is still being decided, but they are looking for local providers for panels and construction," Coggins said.

While Iberdrola has about 3,000 megawatts of wind turbines developed in the U.S. and is working on new wind farms in several states, the company is just breaking into the U.S. solar market, spokesman Paul Copleman said.

"Certainly solar is an important part of what we are doing," Copleman said. "We're excited to be working on this type of technology."

http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles...psolar1121.html