Tucson Electric Power (TEP) has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for a 100 MW solar and a 100 MW wind project, to be built in its service area or connected to existing transmission lines.
TEP is looking for developers and builders to design, construct and own the projects. The utility is offering 20-year power purchase agreements (PPAs) for both, and would begin buying power from the solar facility in early 2019.
TEP says that it is working to deliver at least 30% of its power from renewable energy by 2030, which it notes is double the portion that Arizona is aiming for by 2025. For this the utility expects to add 800 MW of new renewables, bringing its portfolio to 1.2 GW.
“We’re working to provide more solar power for more customers for less money,” said TEP Senior Director of Energy Supply and Renewable Energy Carmine Tilghman. “This new solar facility will help us achieve our renewable energy goals while preserving safe, reliable and affordable service for our community.”
Like other utilities across the United States, TEP has a preference for utility-scale solar versus distributed generation (DG). In previous conversations with pv magazine Tilghman has cited both the higher cost of DG and the utility’s lack of visibility into the output of such systems as reasons for this inclination.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.