The Hooper Solar PV Power Plant is a 50
megawatt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after Jame ...
(
MWAC)
photovoltaic power station
A photovoltaic power station, also known as a solar park, solar farm, or solar power plant, is a large-scale grid-connected photovoltaic power system (PV system) designed for the supply of merchant power. They are different from most building ...
in the
San Luis Valley
The San Luis Valley is a region in south-central Colorado with a small portion overlapping into New Mexico. The valley is approximately long and wide, extending from the Continental Divide on the northwest rim into New Mexico on the south. It co ...
, located near the town of
Mosca, Colorado
Mosca is an unincorporated community and a U.S. Post Office in Alamosa County, Colorado, United States. It was named for the nearby Mosca Pass, which was named for the Spanish explorer, Luis de Moscoso Alvarado. The Mosca Post Office has th ...
. It was the largest solar facility in the state when it came online at the end of 2015. The electricity is being sold to Public Service of
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...
, a subsidiary of
Xcel Energy
Xcel Energy Inc. is an American utility holding company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, serving more than 3.7 million electric customers and 2.1 million natural gas customers in Colorado, Texas, and New Mexico in 2019. It consists of four ope ...
, under a long-term
power purchase agreement
A power purchase agreement (PPA), or electricity power agreement, is a contract between two parties, one which generates electricity (the seller) and one which is looking to purchase electricity (the buyer). The PPA defines all of the commercial te ...
.
Facility details
The facility occupies about 320
acre
The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial and US customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, of a square mile, 4,840 square ...
s of previous agricultural farmland, and is located near several other large solar power plants in the sunny and cool San Luis Valley. It was developed and constructed by
SunPower
SunPower is an American provider of photovoltaic solar energy generation systems and battery energy storage products, primarily for residential customers. The company, headquartered in San Jose, California, was founded in 1985 by Richard Sw ...
, and is owned by a subsidiary of the French company
Total S.A.
TotalEnergies SE is a French multinational integrated energy and petroleum company founded in 1924 and one of the seven supermajor oil companies. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and ...
which is also the majority owner of SunPower.
The plant is built using SunPower's Oasis Power Plant System, which includes single-axis
tracking
Tracking may refer to:
Science and technology Computing
* Tracking, in computer graphics, in match moving (insertion of graphics into footage)
* Tracking, composing music with music tracker software
* Eye tracking, measuring the position of ...
, robotic panel cleaning, and real-time monitoring at the company's operations center.
Construction began in early 2015, and employed about 150 workers. Mortenson Construction completed the site preparation and installed the array support
piles
Hemorrhoids (or haemorrhoids), also known as piles, are vascular structures in the anal canal. In their normal state, they are cushions that help with stool control. They become a disease when swollen or inflamed; the unqualified term ''hemo ...
and other
civil structures. Commercial operations began in December 2015 shortly after the delivery of first electricity to the
grid
Grid, The Grid, or GRID may refer to:
Common usage
* Cattle grid or stock grid, a type of obstacle is used to prevent livestock from crossing the road
* Grid reference, used to define a location on a map
Arts, entertainment, and media
* News g ...
.
The facility is sited adjacent to a San Luis Valley
substation and has been planned to accommodate a future 100 MW expansion.
Electricity production
See also
*
San Luis Valley Solar Ranch
*
Solar power in Colorado
Solar power in Colorado has grown rapidly, partly because of one of the most favorable net metering laws in the country, with no limit on the number of users. The state was the first in the nation to establish a Renewable Portfolio Standard for it ...
*
Solar power in the United States
Solar power includes solar farms as well as local distributed generation, mostly on rooftops and increasingly from community solar arrays. In 2021, utility-scale solar power generated 115 terawatt-hours (TWh), or 2.8% of electricity in t ...
*
Renewable energy in the United States
According to preliminary data from the US Energy Information Administration, renewable energy accounted for about 12.6% of total primary energy consumption and about 19.8% of the domestically produced electricity in the United States in 2 ...
*
Renewable portfolio standard
External links
VIDEO: SunPower Robotic Panel Cleaning
References
{{Solar power in the United States
Buildings and structures in Alamosa County, Colorado
Photovoltaic power stations in Colorado
Photovoltaic power stations in the United States
Energy infrastructure completed in 2015