San Luis Valley to get 60 million dollar solar plant

Xcel announced that it has selected an affiliate of SunEdison, LLC, North America's leading solar energy service provider, to build, own and operate the 8-megawatt central solar power plant about 2 miles northwest of this small unincorporated community lying along Colorado 17, about 13 miles north of Alamosa.

Betty Westbrook said she and her two siblings could not pass up Xcel's offer to sell the agricultural acreage that their parents bought for them as an investment a dozen or so years ago.

"Xcel paid (about) $1,200 an acre, which is what good agricultural land is going for. But this is just sagebrush and we've been using it for pasture for cattle and horses," Mrs. Westbrook said.

Mrs. Westbrook is delighted that the land will house the estimated $60 million solar-power plant. The plant will be capable of powering more than 2,600 homes along the Front Range and other parts of Colorado.

Mrs. Westbrook said the closing on the acreage, which her parents, George and Dorothy Kirkpatrick, purchased for her, her brother, Jason Kirkpatrick, and sister Beverly Chaves, was about two weeks ago. Negotiations took more than a year.

Mrs. Westbrook said she was told that the next day Xcel sold the property to SunEdison.

Tom Henley, spokesman for Xcel, said that SunEdison paid more for the property than the $99,600 the Kirkpatrick children received "because there was a lot of permitting" done by Xcel, but otherwise it was dollar for dollar.

Alamosa County land-use administrator Felix Gallegos said to put up the solar farm will require a conditional use permit from the county commissioners and SunEdison has not applied for one yet.

A pre-application forum before the county planning commission resulted in the planning commission recommending that two more such forums be held before any conditional use is granted by county commissioners, Gallegos said.

The process for a conditional use permit generally takes from eight to 10 weeks, if there are no problems.

The power plant will house two solar technologies: concentrating photovoltaic and advanced flat-plate solar panel units. Both the flat-plate solar panel segment of the plant and the concentrating solar segment will be the largest of their type in the United States.

About 1.2 megawatts will come from concentrating photovoltaic units. The remaining estimated 6.8 megawatts of generation will be advanced flat-plate solar panel units.

The plant is expected to be on line by the end of 2007. Henley said construction is expected to begin within 90 days.

Public Service Co. of Colorado will purchase the power and the Renewable Energy Credits associated with the plant.

"Being able to meet the power needs of our customers and meet the voter-approved, Amendment 37 standards this quickly demonstrates our commitment to the environment," said Pat Vincent, president and chief executive officer of Public Service Co. of Colorado, an Xcel Energy company.

Xcel must install about 18 megawatts of solar power through 2010 to comply with renewable energy standards outlined in Amendment 37.

"We will move forward with the project as soon as we receive regulatory approval to purchasing the output from this solar power plant," Vincent added.

"SunEdison is honored to be selected as the winning vendor for this ground-breaking project," said Jigar Shah, chief executive officer of SunEdison.

"SunEdison simplifies solar power for utility-scale deployments for energy leaders like Xcel Energy," Shah said. "All parties will enjoy the benefits of clean, reliable and competitively priced solar power delivered seamlessly via the power grid to Colorado consumers. We look forward to the ribbon-cutting ceremony next year."

Concentrating photovoltaic units squeeze sunlight into a beam of light 500 times greater than normal light. That beam is then focused on a photovoltaic cell that converts the highly concentrated light into electricity more efficiently than non-concentrated cells. The solar electricity is converted from direct current to alternating current then sent to a power substation and fed into the power grid.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory rates the San Luis Valley as having the best solar conditions in Colorado. This central solar power plant will take advantage of those conditions.

Generating electricity from solar power will allow Xcel Energy to provide energy in an environmentally friendly way. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, by using just 2 kilowatts of photovoltaic capacity, a person can reduce carbon dioxide emissions equal to driving 6,200 miles in a car.

Mrs. Westbrook said she and her siblings still own the rest of the 160 acres their parents bought. Her 84-year-old father, George Kirkpatrick has lived in the area since the 1930s and has farmed here since the early 1950s. He and his children are actively involved in a potato-farming operation and are in the midst of harvesting 360 acres of potatoes.

Mrs. Westbrook said that Xcel did not want water, but SunEdison apparently does.

"We have an artesian well on the quarter but it isn't a commercial well," she explained. "I don't know where they are going to get the water they need for the construction phase. It's my understanding they plan to level the land and put in the production plant."

The purchased land is adjacent to Xcel's energy substation, allowing the solar energy to go directly into the transmission line.

Mrs. Westbrook and her family are avid advocates of alternative energy sources. She said her brother raises canola that he sells to Blue Sun for biodiesel and uses biodiesel in his tractor.