Consumers Energy plans to site a solar power plant at former coal site; DSD Renewables to establish community solar portfolio for Dollar Tree; FTC Solar bags 225 MW Sandhills Project; Dominion Energy wants to add nearly 800 MW solar in Virginia.
85 MW solar project for coal site: Consumers Energy has announced plans for an 85 MW solar power plant to be sited at the former Karn Coal Power Plant site in Michigan. The coal project was shut down by Consumers Energy in early-2023 as part of its plan to close all its coal power plants by 2025. The utility says its feasibility studies and local stakeholder consultations ensured that solar energy emerged as the best option to reuse the site. The solar power plant is expected to come online by 2026, providing enough power for approximately 20,000 homes while generating revenues for the local economy during its 30-year operational life.
Solar for Dollar Tree: US-based retail chain Dollar Tree has signed up to receive solar power from 7 projects of DSD Renewables. The latter will set up a community solar portfolio of 41.75 MW combined capacity at select Dollar Tree and Family Dollar locations in East Syracuse, Cortland, Remsen, Medina, Silver Creek and Brier Hill in New York. These will generate 55.77 GWh of clean energy annually to help the company meet its operational energy demands. Dollar Tree will offtake 16.67 MW of the total for 184 of its Dollar Tree and Family Dollar stores. Of the portfolio, 2 projects are already operational. The solar energy procurement exercise is aligned with Dollar Tree's commitment to achieve net zero target by June 30, 2024. DSD was selected by NRG Energy via a competitive selection round to develop the projects.
225 MW project for FTC Solar: Solar tracker systems supplier FTC Solar has been selected by Sandhills Energy for a 225 MW project near Columbus, Nebraska. The Butler County project will deploy FTC's Pioneer 1P solar tracker solution. FTC plans to start order delivery in Q3/2024. The value of the project was included as an awarded order in the total backlog disclosed on August 9, 2023 when FTC shared its Q2/2023 financials (see FTC Solar Misses Q2/2023 Revenue Guidance).
Nearly 800 MW solar capacity for Virginia: Dominion Energy has proposed the Virginia State Cooperation Commission (SCC) to approve its request to add 772 MW new solar PV capacity in the state. This capacity will bring online more than a dozen new projects to power nearly 200,000 homes at peak output. Dominion says that of the total projects, 6 solar plants with 337 MW capacity are proposed to be owned or acquired by the utility. It includes 13 power purchase agreements (PPA) with independently owned solar plants with a combined capacity of 435 MW. According to the utility, these projects, if approved, will enable the company to surpass 4.6 GW of solar in Virginia.