Borrego Solar Systems and sPower (Sustainable Power Group) are commencing construction on a solar project located in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York. Being located on sPower-owned land in the Town of River head, the facility will have a capacity of 6.3MW AC (9.1MW DC) when completed.
“The sPower Riverhead Solar facility has been designed to be a very clean, very safe and very quiet neighbor,” said Ryan Creamer, CEO at sPower. “We are pleased that construction has begun and are confident that together with Borrego, we’ll soon be able to start providing reliable, renewable power to PSEG-LI rate payers while creating local sustainable jobs.”
sPower has two additional projects in Suffolk County which are currently under development with Borrego Solar slated as the EPC. The projects will supply energy to PSEG-LI under the utility’s first Clean Solar Initiative Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) program and will make sPower the owner of the largest portfolio of solar facilities under the program. When fully operational, the sPower Riverhead solar project is expected to generate enough clean solar energy to serve the electrical needs of about 1,100 homes per year, displacing roughly 8,300 metric tons of CO2 annually.
“These projects mark Borrego and sPower’s second portfolio under a utility FIT program—the first being an 8.3MW portfolio under Southern California Edison’s California Renewable Energy Small Tariff,” said Mike Hall, CEO at Borrego Solar.
“Based on our track record of successfully teaming with Borrego and the support and commitment from PSEG-LI, the pieces have begun to fall into place for these projects,” said Creamer. “As a diversified EPC, Borrego is used to filling many roles, making them a reliable and knowledgeable partner.”
sPower inked a 20-year power purchase agreement with PSEG-LI at a fixed rate of $0.22/kWh. PSEG-LI voluntarily launched the FIT program to add more clean energy into their portfolio and employ local workers. PSEG-LI is also requiring interconnection at distribution levels, which will improve reliability of the utility’s electrical grid.