Danish energy player Ørsted has completed and commissioned the 227 MW AC Muscle Shoals Solar PV Project in the US, and expanded the group's total operational solar power capacity to 647 MW. It now has 1.4 GW of cumulative of solar and storage capacity in operation and under construction.
The 227 MW AC facility in Colbert County of Alabama is contracted to sell energy generated to B2B electricity supplier Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) under a long term power purchase agreement (PPA). Ørsted had acquired the 227 MW facility from renewable energy developer Longroad Energy in July 2020 (see Orsted Acquires 227 MW AC Alabama Solar Farm).
The project utilizes First Solar's Series 6 solar modules, Nextracker trackers and Power Electronics' inverters. Having come up as the 1st solar farm under TVA's Green Invest initiative, the new project will support sustainability goals of Facebook's data center in Huntsville, Alabama that came online recently.
"The acquisition and completion of Muscle Shoals represents the continued successful execution of our expansion strategy in which we seek to complement our core market greenfield development activities with opportunistic acquisitions in new markets to diversify our portfolio," said Ørsted Chief Commercial Officer Vishal Kapadia.
Recently, Ørsted announced the appointment of its Interim CEO for Onshore Business Neil O'Donovan as the permanent CEO for the segment (see Neil O'Donovan Ørsted's Onshore CEO).