Coronal Energy announced that construction of the Latitude Solar Center is underway in Hardeman County, Tennessee. Coronal will sell energy from the 15-MWac solar facility to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) under a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) and interconnect to the grid through facilities owned and operated by Bolivar Energy Authority.
“The Latitude Solar Center is our third utility-scale solar project with TVA, and once online will represent another project that has gone end-to-end through our development process,” said Danny Van Clief, president of Coronal Energy. “When completed this project will be added to our growing operating portfolio and will provide Tennessee Valley customers decades of low-cost, sustainable power.”
When commissioned, the Latitude Solar Center will become one of the largest solar facilities in the state. 2018 is forecast to be a record-setting year for new solar generating capacity in Tennessee, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. More than three-quarters of new installed capacity is expected to come from utility-scale solar. Last year the state added nearly 80 MW of new solar to its grid and is expected to add more than 90 MW this year, including the Latitude Solar Center.
“TVA cares about the environment, and this Coronal Energy project helps us meet our commitment to provide the 9 million people of the Tennessee Valley with reliable, low-cost, carbon-free electricity,” said Jay Stowe, senior vice president Distributed Energy Resources for TVA. “Over the next 20 years, TVA will invest about $8 billion to support our renewable energy portfolio, and we see a bright renewable energy future for projects like this across the Tennessee Valley.”
McCarthy’s Phoenix-based Renewable Energy team was selected as the EPC contractor and will be responsible for the construction, design, procurement and commissioning of the solar project. The project is expected to be completed in late fall of 2018 and will deliver 150 construction jobs.
“We’re pleased to be constructing this utility-scale solar project to this community in Tennessee,” said Scott Canada, senior VP of solar and renewable energy for McCarthy Building Companies. “In addition to providing solar construction jobs to the local workforce, it gets us another step closer to changing the energy infrastructure of our nation through clean energy solutions.”
News item from Coronal Energy
Tell Us What You Think!