Nearly one year from the start of construction, McCarthy Building Companies installed the final solar module on the Arrow Canyon Solar project, a 274-MWDC solar and a 91-MW, 455-MWh DC-coupled storage facility located on the Moapa River Indian Reservation in Moapa, Nevada.
Credit: McCarthy
EDF Renewables contracted McCarthy as EPC to construct the 1,387-acre project, and electrical trade partner, Bombard Electric, recently installed the last of the 621,093 bifacial. The project also features 7,139 NEXTracker NX Horizon trackers.
“Seeing module number 621,093 installed is a very exciting milestone,” said John Bastarous, VP of construction at EDF Renewables. “Constructing this size of a project takes strong partnerships that share common values of safety, quality, and teamwork. We appreciate McCarthy and Bombard for their well-coordinated efforts, in achieving such a key milestone.”
At the height of construction and module installation, there were more than 450 team members on the job site, including 46 tribal members. When fully operational in December 2022, Arrow Canyon will generate enough clean energy to meet the consumption of up to 76,000 average Nevada homes.
“McCarthy and our electrical trade partner, Bombard Electric, are proud of the outstanding teamwork and collaboration with our partners that helped successfully reach this installation milestone. After installing approximately 38.8 million pounds worth of modules, this milestone is worth celebrating with EDF Renewables and the Moapa Paiutes in the effort towards expanding their sustainable solar infrastructure and energy storage in Southern Nevada,” said Chris Fletcher, project director at McCarthy.
News item from McCarthy Building Companies
Interesting this EPC project design topology seems to be about 197.5kWp per acre, up from the past design criteria with an average of 125kWp per acre. With some of the tandem solar cell R&D going on right now, like the announcement here of Toshiba using cuprous oxide for around 9% solar harvest efficiency could also make a CuO and crystall silicon solar cell tandem of 30% efficiency. Imagine the same project here with a 30% solar PV cell about 270.4kWp per acre. Even on a fixed roof mount on one’s home, you could get around 13.5kWp with a 30% efficient panel.