Duke Energy branches into solar with first solar plant acquisition

26 January 2010

US power company Duke Energy, which recently appointed a new senior vice president for wind development, is adding solar power to its portfolio through the acquisition of a large-scale solar photovoltaic project under development in San Antonio, Texas.

Duke Energy Generation Services (DEGS), a Duke Energy Commercial Businesses unit that owns and develops renewable power assets, will purchase the Blue Wing solar project from German headquartered solar company juwi solar, based in Boulder, Colorado. The company said the 14MW (16MW direct current) project will consist of 214,500 ground-mounted First Solar thin film panels.

‘Demand for power from renewable resources continues to rise,’ said Keith Trent, group executive and president of Duke Energy’s Commercial Businesses. ‘Our entry into the commercial solar power industry reaffirms Duke Energy’s commitment to generating emissions-free electricity for customers.’

With the acquisition comes a 30-year power purchase agreement to sell all of the output from the solar farm and associated renewable energy credits to San Antonio-based CPS Energy, one of the largest municipality-owned utilities in the US.

‘Duke Energy’s acquisition of the Blue Wing solar project adds an exciting new dimension to our renewable power business,’ said Wouter van Kempen, president of Duke Energy Generation Services. ‘We took our wind energy business from zero megawatts to more than 730MW in under three years, so I’m very confident we can grow our solar power business.’

Duke said construction of the 139 acre project will follow the close of the acquisition, which is expected in the first quarter of 2010. The project is expected to be completed and energised by the fourth quarter of 2010.

Blue Wing will be the first commercial solar power project Duke Energy will own and operate. Duke Energy Carolinas, part of the company’s regulated business, is installing solar panels on select business and residential customers’ rooftops as part of a $50m programme. Although Duke Energy plans to wholly own the Blue Wing project, the company said it continues to look for opportunities to jointly develop commercial solar power projects in the US with China-based ENN Group, as part of an agreement between the companies signed in October 2009.

Duke Energy owns and operates 733MW of commercial wind power generation, which it said will rise to nearly 1,000MW by the end of 2010. In total, the company has committed more than $1bn since 2007 to build its wind energy business.

Duke Energy Generation Services, part of Duke Energy’s Commercial Businesses, develops renewable energy wind, solar and bioenergy projects. It builds, owns and operates electric generation for large energy consumers, municipalities, utilities and industrial facilities and said it is working to build commercial transmission capacity.

Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Duke Energy is a Fortune 500 company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

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Tags: wind

This story was published on Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 at 1:11 pm and is filed under North America, deals, solar, wind. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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