El Paso Electric (EPE) is pleased to announce the commercial operation of its newest solar facility at the EPE Eastside Operations Center Campus in Far East El Paso. This 3,000 kilowatt (kW) facility is home to EPE’s Community Solar Program and is the largest community solar facility in the state of Texas. May 31, 2017 marked the official commercial operation of the community solar facility.
The pilot program was fully subscribed in just one month since the opening of subscriptions in mid-March, with about 1,500 customers enrolled. Due to the large demand and interest in the program, EPE is looking for ways to expand the Community Solar Program to even more of our Texas customers and bring the program to customers in New Mexico in the future.
“We’re excited to bring this new facility online and to begin generating credits for customers who want to invest in solar energy without any equipment or embedded subsidies,” said Mary Kipp, El Paso Electric President and CEO. “We have several large scale solar facilities that are part of our generation mix, and this latest project allows us to keep supporting innovation in renewable energy, making it more accessible to all our Texas customers through our Community Solar Program.”
After the first year of operation, generation from this 3,000 kW facility will prevent more than 11 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions from entering our atmosphere. This is equal to saving almost five million gallons of water and planting more than one hundred twenty-eight thousand trees.
With the commercial operation of this facility, subscribers to the Community Solar program will see the credits of the solar production for the month of June reflected in the bills they receive in July of this year. Subscribers will pay $20.96 per kW for capacity, with generation base and fuel credits offsetting the capacity charge.
Customers may visit epelectric.com to learn more about the program or to sign-up and be placed on a waiting list. If capacity becomes available at a later time, these customers will be contacted on a first-come first-serve basis. Customers may also view video of the completed solar facility online.
