The Chaparral Solar Project is located in New Mexico near El Paso, Texas, and the power will be sold to El Paso Electric Company (NYSE: EE) under a 25-year power purchase agreement.
When it’s completed, the solar farm will provide enough electricity for 2,400 homes annually and will lower CO2 emissions by 38 million pounds a year. The press release also notes an advantage for solar over natural gas:
The solar facility also saves more than 4.5 million gallons of water per year that would have otherwise been consumed if the electricity were generated by a natural gas combined cycle power plant.
That’s about 14 acre-feet of water, or enough to serve about 65 homes for a year, a significant amount in the parched American Southwest.
MEMC’s shares are down about 2% today at $2.38 in a 52-week range of $1.44 to $6.80.
Paul Ausick
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