100 MW AC Solar VPPA For EDF Renewables In US

• EDF Renewables North America has entered a VPPA contract with Enterprise Products Partners
• Under the deal signed, Enterprise Products Partners has laid claim to 100 MW AC solar power capacity from the Space City Solar Project
• The transaction, said Enterprise Products Partners, is aligned with its strategy to expand solar energy portfolio to have renewables account for 25% of its power supply by 2025

The US based renewable energy arm of French energy behemoth EDF Group, EDF Renewables North America has secured a virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA) for 100 MW AC/132 MW DC solar power capacity in the country.

This capacity forms the 2^nd tranche of the Space City Solar Project that on completion will have an aggregate capacity of 345 MW AC/455 MW DC. In December 2020, EDF secured German chemicals company BASF as the offtaker for 55 MW AC/73 MW DC solar power from the same project under a power purchase agreement (PPA), forming the 1^st tranche.

The VPPA has been signed with an affiliate of Enterprise Products Partners LP, a natural gas and crude oil pipeline company.

Enterprise's Co-CEO AJ Jim Teague said this transaction with EDF is aligned with the group's initiative to evaluate opportunities to expand solar power purchasing and/or installations across its system to have close to 25% of its power coming from renewables by 2025.

EDF plans to start construction on site in Wharton County, Texas in Summer 2021 eying a commercial operations date of Summer 2022. It plans to deploy high efficiency bifacial solar PV modules for the Space City Solar Project.

US businesses are leading the drive for the country to adopt solar PV technology, having signed up for 11.9 GW corporate renewable energy PPAs in 2020, as the largest market in the category out of 23.7 GW clean energy contracted by corporates last year, according to a BloombergNEF report (see 23.7 GW Corporate Clean Energy PPAs Signed In 2020).

Speaking of bifacial solar modules, TaiyangNews is holding a 1-day virtual conference on Bifacial Solar on March 4, 2021. Registrations are free here.