Construction of Solar Project Begins in New Mexico

LOVINGTON, N.M. — SunEdison broke ground on a 54-megawatt solar photovoltaic plant in Lea and Eddy counties in New Mexico, the company announced. The plant is being built on five separate sites.

The Maryland-based solar energy services subsidiary of MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc., is developing the project for Xcel Energy’s regional operating company, Southwestern Public Service Co.

The solar project will be the largest in New Mexico, generating more than 2 million megawatt-hours of energy over its 20-year lifespan, enough to power over 192,000 households annually.

The plant is slated to go on line at the end of next year and is expected to produce over 112 million kilowatt-hours of electricity in the first year of operations. The project will help Xcel Energy to meet New Mexico’s renewable portfolio standard, which requires regulated electric utilities to supply 15 percent of their electricity from renewable resources by 2015 and 20 percent by 2020.

SunEdison will finance, build and maintain the plant under a 20-year solar power services agreement with Xcel, which will buy the solar energy generated by the plant.

SunEdison recently brought a 70-megawatt solar plant in Italy.