Denver Post
SunEdison LLC announced Monday that it will build a $60 million solar energy generating station in southern Colorado that will be the largest of its type in the nation.
The 8-megawatt plant will be capable of powering 2,300 homes - small by utility-scale standards, but considered a pioneering effort by energy analysts.
Xcel Energy will buy the power output of the plant, helping the utility comply with 2004's Amendment 37 initiative that requires large utilities in Colorado to generate at least 10 percent of their electricity with renewable sources like wind and solar power by 2015.
The plant will employ conventional photovoltaic panels that convert sunlight to electricity, as well as solar concentrating panels, a newer technology that refocuses sunlight into beams of light 500 times more powerful than regular sunlight. The 80-acre plant, due to start operating by the end of 2007, will be built in Mosca, about 13 miles north of Alamosa in the San Luis Valley of south-central Colorado.
SunEdison, based in Baltimore, is one of North America's largest providers of solar energy services. Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy supplies electricity to 1.3 million customers in Colorado.
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