By Jane Stewart for Arizona Builder’s Exchange
An application for a Special Use Permit has been filed to bring another solar project to Yuma County.
Rich Hamilton, agent for Invenergy Solar Development, LLC, filed the application for the Yuma Solar Energy Project that would sit on approximately 680 gross acres of land Invenergy is leasing from the Arizona State Land Department.
The acreage sits on two separate parcels zoned Rural Area-10-acre minimum (RA-10) “located in unincorporated Yuma County, approximately 2.5 miles south of Interstate 8…just east of the City of Yuma,” and south of County 13th Street between the alignments of Fortuna Road and Foothills Boulevard.
The currently undeveloped site is “adjacent to the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range…and will interconnect to the grid via a new 69kV line connecting to the existing substation on the APS Foothills Solar site about 1.25 miles to the north.” In 2013, Foothills Solar Project site became the first solar plant located on state trust land in Arizona.
The Yuma Solar Energy Project is designed to generate approximately 110 megawatts using “photovoltaic modules that are generally non-reflective and convert sunlight into direct current electricity. The DC output of multiple rows of PV modules is collected through one or more combiner boxes and directed to an inverter that converts the DC electricity to alternating current electricity.”
The amount of power that could be generated at this facility is the equivalent of powering 25,845 homes. Additionally, the site would include 100 megawatts of storage via a battery energy storage system. The panels would be “mounted on single-axis trackers where (they) will be oriented in north-south rows, with the panels moving to track the sun as it moves across the sky during the day.”
As well as the solar fields’ associated structures, “The Project could include an operations and maintenance building adjacent to the Project Substation. During operations, the O&M building would have potable water and possibly a septic system. At full build-out, most of the site (approximately 600 acres) will be covered by solar arrays. The energy storage area would cover approximately 8.5 acres and would be located near the Project substation in the eastern central portion of the site.”
A 14-month construction schedule would bring the project on line in 2020.
Invenergy, LLC, of which Yuma Solar Energy, LLC is an affiliate, is, “A global independent power producer that develops, owns, and operates solar, wind, and natural gas energy generation and energy storage projects in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Japan.”
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