North America PV Snippets: Orsted, SOL, Michigan

• Orsted has secured MSD as its client for solar power supply in Texas, US and expanded its customer base
• SOL Components has provided its products as key supplier for a 213 MW DC solar project in California
• Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has announced all state buildings and other facilities must run on renewable energy by 2025

Orsted signs PPA for Texas project: Denmark headquartered renewable energy company Orsted has secured biopharmaceutical company MSD, known as Merck & Co. Inc., to sell solar power to, from its Armadillo Solar Center in Texas, US. The project in Navarro County is scheduled to come online by early 2023. Orsted said it enables the company to expand its industrial customer base to a pharmaceutical firm. Solar power from the project will help MSD lower the environmental impact of its operations.

SOL supplies for 213 MW DC project in California: Solar module mounting systems supplier SOL Components has completed the construction of a ground fixed tilt (GFT) solar mounting system to support a 213 MW SC solar power plant near Herald, California. According to the company, its components support more than 500,000 solar panels on site. Among other components, SOL delivered a racking system and light gauge roll-formed steel piles and racking components to reduce overall steel weight which 'greatly reduced' the developer's racking costs. The project, it explained, will replace nuclear power previously being supplied by a plant shuttered in 1989.

Renewable energy mandatory for Michigan buildings by 2025: Michigan state in the US has made it mandatory for all its office buildings and other facilities to run on renewable energy by 2025, according to an announcement made by Governor Gretchen Whitmer, as per local media. It will be done with the support of DTE, Consumers Energy and Lansing Board of Water & Light who will help Michigan buy clean energy. According to reports, the state will also form an interagency team to generate solar power on state-owned land and buildings. The state wants to become a carbon neutral entity by 2050.