Ørsted and Salt River Project (SRP) celebrated the official commencement of the Eleven Mile Solar Center, a 300-MW solar project and 300-MW/1,200-MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in Pinal County. The project is part of Ørsted’s $20 billion dollar investment in building out American energy generation. Eleven Mile Solar Center is SRP’s largest co-located solar and BESS project, providing power to businesses, homes and Meta’s data center in Mesa, Arizona.
“Solar energy paired with battery energy storage will be critical to the reliable delivery of power as the demand for electricity grows,” said David Hardy, Group EVP and CEO Americas at Ørsted. “Arizona has one of the highest growth rates of electricity in the country due to the surge in data centers and the reshoring of American manufacturing. With our first project in Arizona now complete, we’re thrilled to help meet the growing demand of the state and region with reliable, domestic energy.”
To celebrate the economic benefits the project brings to the local community and the significant clean power it is contributing to Arizona, Ørsted hosted a celebration attended by U.S. suppliers, SRP, community members and local and state elected officials at Eleven Mile’s O&M facility.
“The Eleven Mile Solar Center represents a significant investment in southern Arizona and support for our state’s growing energy needs,” said Arizona Corporate Commissioner Lea Marquez Peterson. “The Eleven Mile project exemplifies how clean energy can help us diversify our resources while ensuring reliability for the local grid.”
Eleven Mile Solar Center represents an approximate $1 billion dollar investment by Ørsted in clean energy for Arizona and will generate approximately $80 million to the local community for public services in the form of tax revenue. Additionally, the project created over 1,000 construction jobs in the local area and will require additional roles for operation and maintenance over the next several decades. Ørsted supported American companies, such as First Solar, Fluence NEXTracker, in procuring panels, batteries and tracking equipment for the project.
“I am proud of our communities’ efforts to support this partnership between Ørsted and Salt River Project,” said Eloy Mayor Micah Powell. “This energy project is a first of its kind in our region and will have a huge impact on energy reliability for our local area.”
With the addition of Eleven Mile, SRP has nearly 3,000 MW of carbon-free energy – including more than 1,400 MW of solar – serving its customers. SRP also has nearly 1,300 MW of battery and pumped hydro storage supporting its grid. SRP is working to at least double the number of generating resources on its power system in the next 10 years to meet increasing energy demand in the Phoenix metropolitan area as it moves forward with the planned retirement of 1,300 MW of coal resources.
“The energy and storage capacity provided by the Eleven Mile Solar System plays an important role in helping meet SRP’s ambitious decarbonization goals while providing affordable and reliable energy to our customers,” said Bobby Olsen, Associate General Manager & Chief Planning, Strategy & Sustainability Executive at SRP. “We appreciate our partnership with Ørsted and Meta to bring more clean energy to our customers.”
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