BrightNight, a renewable energy developer serving utilities, datacenters, and commercial and industrial customers, and its joint venture partner Cordelio Power, an independent power producer, announced the commercial operations of a 300 MW solar project in Arizona.
Located in the town of Florence, Arizona, the project is expected to generate over 915,000 MWh of electricity per year, or enough to power over 77,000 Arizona homes. The project is part of a 2.5 GW Arizona portfolio jointly owned by BrightNight and Cordelio Power and the first to reach commercial operations.
“The Box Canyon Solar Project will provide reliable, clean and affordable energy for more than 40 years – generating local revenue, enabling continued economic growth in the region, and creating skilled American jobs,” said BrightNight chief executive officer Martin Hermann.
An economic impact study by Elliott Pollack and Associates estimates the project generated $47 million in economic impact in Pinal County during the construction period and created more than 300 temporary jobs. During operations, the Box Canyon Solar Project is expected to generate an estimated $134 million in local economic benefits – through property taxes, wages, and more.
The project is expected to generate more than $65 million in land lease payments to be allocated to the State of Arizona Land Trust. The trust’s recipients include K–12 schools and universities, state hospitals, and other critical public services. The project will also fund scholarships for 50 students participating in Central Arizona College’s electrician program over the next five years.
Concurrently with achieving commercial operations, BrightNight and Cordelio Power completed the previously announced tax equity investment with J.P. Morgan, through one of its affiliates, and Capital One, N.A. and converted the construction debt financing into a term loan. In October 2024 the company announced the $260 million investment. The project’s construction financing was secured in May 2024 with Zions Bank, CIBC, RBC, NBC, and SMTB.
BrightNight has a 35 GW project portfolio across the U.S., including renewables, gas generation, battery energy storage and digital infrastructure power hubs. The Box Canyon project was developed with support from BrightNight’s proprietary artificial intelligence platform, PowerAlpha.
Cordelio Power develops, builds and operates wind, energy storage and solar facilities. It manages a 1.7 GW operating portfolio in the U.S. and Canada and has a development pipeline of over 22 GW of projects in the United States. The company is wholly owned by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
The project represents the largest renewable energy project operating in the Southwest Public Power Agency (SPPA) territory, said the company. SPPA is a joint action agency, authorized under Arizona state law, which manages through a formal pool all or most of its members’ power resources and facilitates the supply of additional energy needed to meet their customers’ loads.
The SPPA members include:
- Aguila Irrigation District
- Ak-Chin Energy Services
- Buckeye Water Conservation & Drainage District
- Electrical District No. 2, Pinal County
- Electrical District No. 3, Pinal County
- Electrical District No. 4, Pinal County
- Electrical District No. 6, Maricopa County
- Electrical District No. 7, Maricopa County
- Electrical District No. 8, Maricopa County
- Gila River Indian Community Utility Authority
- Harquahala Valley Power District
- McMullen Valley Water Conservation and Drainage District
- Maricopa County Municipal Water Conservation District No. 1
- Navajo Tribal Utility Authority
- Ocotillo Water Conservation District
- Roosevelt Irrigation District
- City of Safford
- Town of Thatcher
- Tonopah Irrigation District
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.