Xcel to buy new type of photovoltaic power (Denver)
Xcel Energy Inc. has signed a 20-year contract to get 30 megawatts of power from a new “concentrating photovoltaic” power plant to be built near Alamosa in the San Luis Valley, solar power developer Cogentrix Energy LLC said Monday.
The solar power plant — believed to be the largest power plant of its kind in the world — will cost between $140 million and $150 million to build, said Jef Freeman, spokesman for Cogentrix, based in Charlotte, N.C. The company is a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Construction on the Alamosa Solar Generating project is expected to start in the first quarter of 2011 and will employ an average of 110 people per month during the 15-month construction period. Construction jobs will peak at 140 people at the height of construction, Freeman said.
When operational, expected in the second quarter of 2012, the power plant will employ between five and 10 people, he said.
It will generate enough power to supply 6,500 homes, according to Cogentrix.
Xcel declined to disclose terms of the power-purchase agreement between the utility and Cogentrix. Colorado recently raised the amount of renewable energy Xcel needs to have in its portfolio to 30 percent by 2020.
Read more in the Denver Business Journal.
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