Posted Jul 7, 2011, 2:33 PM
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Loving SA 365 days a year
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Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: San Antonio
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San Antonio plans to build world's largest solar energy farm
CPS Energy ratchets up investment in solar
By Tracy Idell Hamilton
The CPS solar farm would be four times bigger than the current world's largest, Sarnia Solar Project in Ontario, pictured above. Photo: Courtesy Photo / SA
Quote:
CPS Energy will be making a far larger investment in solar energy than the already substantial 50-megawatt project it sought proposals for earlier this year.
The utility last week notified all of the bidders for that project that they have until July 16 to resubmit their proposals — but this time for up to 400 megawatts, in large part because the price of solar continues to drop.
If built, a solar system of that size would launch San Antonio into the top tier of solar projects internationally.
Today, the largest solar installation in the world is 97 megawatts in southern Ontario, followed by several between 84 and 53 megawatts in Italy, Germany and Spain.
Four hundred megawatts can power about 80,000 homes.
That's almost half the amount CPS needs to replace the two coal-burning units it plans to retire in 2018.
For the other half, CPS plans to buy 200 megawatts of “clean coal” from a first-of-its-kind plant to be built near Odessa, and will save 250 megawatts through home energy management systems offered to customers for free.
The increase in the solar proposal comes as something of a surprise.
The deadline for the original request for proposals was mid-May, and late last month, CEO Doyle Beneby said the utility had narrowed the finalists to two.
He told the Express-News Editorial Board in mid-June that he hoped to name the winner on June 20, when he and Mayor Julián Castro announced that several clean energy technology companies would relocate their headquarters to San Antonio.
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