First Solar Inc of Tempe, AZ, USA – which makes thin-film photovoltaic modules based on cadmium telluride (CdTe) as well as providing engineering, procurement & construction (EPC) services – has sold the 50MWAC Macho Springs Solar Project to Southern Company subsidiary Southern Power and Turner Renewable Energy. Regional electric utility firm El Paso Electric has a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for all energy generated by the power plant.
Located on about 600 acres of State Trust land near Deming, New Mexico, Macho Springs is the state’s largest solar power plant and will generate enough energy to power about 18,000 homes in El Paso Electric’s service territory. First Solar developed and constructed the project, working closely with the New Mexico State Land Office and El Paso Electric. The plant will operate on a commercial lease from the State Land Office.
The Macho Springs project will displace more than 40,000 metric tons of CO2 (equivalent to taking 7500 cars off the road) and will displace more than 340,000 metric tons of water consumption annually in southern New Mexico and west Texas.
Macho Springs is the third project that Southern Power and Turner Renewable Energy have acquired from First Solar. In April 2013, the partnership purchased the 139MWAC Campo Verde Solar Facility in Imperial County, California, and in 2010 the group bought the 30MWAC Cimarron Solar Project adjacent to Ted Turner’s Vermejo Park Ranch in northern New Mexico.
