D.E. Shaw, SOLV Energy Partnership Leads to Startup of Utah Solar Plant

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Earlier this week, the renewable energy arm of D.E. Shaw Group (New York, New York), D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments (DESRI), said it had started commercial operations of a solar power plant in Utah. While DESRI owns the facility, the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor on the project was SOLV Energy (San Diego, California), a firm DESRI often partners with on its projects.

Startup of the Elektron solar plant in Tooele County, Utah, has been some time in coming. DESRI purchased the project from Enyo Renewable Energy (Cottonwood Heights, Utah) in 2020, and construction began in 2021, with SOLV at the helm. The completed project is now using approximately 200,000 solar panels manufactured by First Solar Incorporated (NASDAQ:FSLR) (Tempe, Arizona) to generate 80 megawatts (MW) of emissions-free power. SOLV will operate and maintain the facility.

The project has 20- and 25-year power purchase agreements in place with Rocky Mountain Power, a unit of PacifiCorp (Portland, Oregon), and the power will help meet the clean energy goals of nearby Park City, as well as the Park City Mountain and Deer Valley ski resorts.

HyMartin, chief development officer of D.E. Shaw, said: "We are thrilled to have completed construction on the Elektron solar facility. While the solar industry has encountered headwinds in the past few years due to supply chain constraints and rising interest rates, this project was able to succeed due to the strong partnership from our customers and local stakeholders. Our team appreciates the ongoing support from the customers, Rocky Mountain Power and Tooele County."

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But neither DESRI nor SOLV seems ready for a period of inactivity after Elektron's completion. Both companies have many other projects in the works, often collaborating, but also involved in plenty of projects without each other. Examples of the two companies' joint efforts include the Horseshoe solar farm near Grantsville, Utah, construction of which also began in 2021 and which SOLV is expected to complete this summer. The plant will use more than 187,000 First Solar panels to generate 75 MW. Subscribers can learn more by viewing the project report.

One of the collaboration's highest-profile projects is underway in New Mexico, near the retired San Juan generating facility, where DESRI and SOLV are underway with the San Juan solar and battery energy storage system (BESS) facility. Construction of the initial grassroot phase of the solar plant kicked off about a year ago and is expected to be completed this summer, when the facility will begin providing 200 MW of power to the local grid, utilizing much of the existing infrastructure from the retired coal plant to deliver the electricity. At its height when all four units were operating, the San Juan Generating Station could provide more than 1,800 MW of power, and at 200 MW, the solar facility will replace only a fraction of that, although there are plans to potentially double its output to 400 MW.

Construction on the facility's BESS unit began somewhat later, and the unit, which will be able to provide up to 100 MW when the sun isn't shining, was expected to be completed earlier this year. Subscribers can learn more by viewing project reports on the solar and BESS portions of the project.

While SOLV seems to be one of the preferred contractors of DESRI, the EPC firm is at work on several projects for other companies as well. One of the largest examples of this is the Phase II and III additions to Starke Solar LLC's (North Abington Township, Pennsylvania) appropriately named Mammoth solar project in Starke and Pulaski counties in Indiana. A second-phase addition is set to kick off this summer, adding a little less than 650,000 panels to provide another 300 MW of generation. This phase is expected to be completed in the summer of 2025, upon which an even larger third phase of construction is planned, resulting in an additional 600 MW of power, putting the plant on track to generate about 1,300 MW at peak output and making it one of the largest solar farms in the U.S. Subscribers can learn more by viewing the related project reports.

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