Xcel Energy Inc. said it selected SunEdison LLC to build, own and operate an 8-megawatt solar power plant in south central Colorado that will help its utility meet a state requirement to boost supplies of renewable electricity sources.
Xcel’s Public Service Company of Colorado will purchase the power and the renewable energy credits associated with the plant expected to be online by the end of 2007, Minneapolis-based Xcel said today in a statement.
Public Service, Colorado’s largest utility, must purchase 10 percent of the electricity its customers use from renewable resources such as wind and solar by 2015.
About 15 percent of the solar plant’s power will come from a technology that concentrates sunrays, the largest such system to be built in the U.S. No cost estimates were released for the project, which needs approval from state regulators, the company said.
