Arizona Joint Venture on Two New Solar Facilities

PHOENIX — Arizona Public Service Co. has signed contracts with SunEdison for the construction of two photovoltaic power plants near Yuma and Prescott, Arizona. The plants, which ownership of SunEdison will turn over to APS at completion, will produce a combined 37 megawatts of energy.

The plants will be built in Hyder, 40 miles east of Yuma; and Chino Valley, and15 miles north of Prescott, will increase APS’s renewable energy portfolio to nearly 682 megawatts by 2013. The Hyder plant will produce 17 megawatts of energy while the Chino Valley plant will generate 20 megawatts.

The two plants are part of APS’s AZ Sun program, through which the agency plans to develop 100 megawatts of utility-owned solar power plants in which a third party builds the solar plant and APS takes ownership when it goes online. The Hyder and Chino Valley plants bring AZ Sun’s solar development to 70 megawatts.

Construction on the Hyder plant will begin in June 2011 and is expected to be complete by the end of 2011. Construction on the Chino Valley plant will begin in the first quarter of 2012 and completed by the of the that year. Polycrystalline photovoltaic panels mounted on single-axis tracking systems will be installed at both facilities.

The AZ Sun program was approved by the Arizona Corporation Commission in 2010 and has so far contracted for a 15-megawatt solar power system at Luke Air Force Base and an 18-megawatt system Gila Bend. Both will be operational in 2011.