Construction begins on 100-MW solar plant in Arizona –

Last
week, Salt River Project (SRP) and sPower announced that construction has begun
on the 100-MW East Line Solar plant, which will bring $10 million in 25 years
of tax revenue and up to 350 construction jobs to Pinal County, according to
the companies. Intel Corporation’s Chandler facility will purchase the output
from the plant.

This
development is part of SRP’s Sustainable Energy Offering program, which
offers commercial customers the option to power a portion of their operations
with clean energy at an affordable price, said SRP. Currently, 33 companies have
signed up to receive 300 MW of solar energy provided from Arizona-based solar
plants, including the sPower East Line Solar facility.

The
East Line Solar facility will support Intel’s Chandler Ocotillo Campus, one of
the corporation’s largest global, semiconductor manufacturing sites. The solar
plant is also part of SRP’s portfolio of clean energy resources contributing to
the utility’s 2035 Sustainability Goals to reduce carbon intensity by more than
60 percent in 2035 and by 90 percent in 2050 from 2005 levels.

East
Line Solar received its conditional use permits in the City of Coolidge in 2019
and is expected to begin operations in December of 2020.

“This
is a scenario that works well for all involved,” said SRP Associate General
Manager & Chief Customer Executive Jim Pratt. “With the East Line Solar
project, we are supporting a great, locally based partner, Intel, meet its
sustainability goals. We also experience many other benefits associated with
utility-scale solar investment, like job creation and expansion in an
environmentally sensible, growing industry.”

“We
are committed to Pinal County for the long term with this low-cost, highly
economically impactful project. We also seek to be a good neighbor as we
develop, construct and operate projects, and it’s important for us to integrate
ourselves from the start. Recent COVID-19 relief efforts have included
donations to Eloy’s Community Action Human Services and Coolidge’s Hope
International Ministries,” said sPower CEO, Ryan Creamer.

Marty
Sedler, Intel’s Director of Global Utilities and Infrastructure, said, “For
more than a decade, Intel has been one of the top voluntary corporate
purchasers of green power, currently supplying our US and European facilities
with 100% green power. Our goal is to achieve 100% renewable energy use across
our global manufacturing operations by 2030 and projects like East Line Solar
help make green power more accessible to all.”