Duke Energy Renewables announced the acquisition of the 13MW Victory Solar Power Project in Adams County, Colo., from developer juwi Inc.
"Victory is our first solar project in Colorado, where we already have an operating wind energy site," said Rob Caldwell, president, Duke Energy Renewables and Distributed Energy Technology. "It's the 50th solar project in our growing U.S. renewables footprint, and juwi's high-quality site marks another milestone in expanding our solar presence in the western part of the country."
Sedalia-based Intermountain Rural Electric Association (IREA) is purchasing the electricity generated by the project under a 25-year agreement. The solar site began operating this week and can power about 2,600 average homes.
"IREA has been tremendous to work with throughout all stages of this project and should be praised for its leadership in bringing clean, safe and reliable energy to its customers," said Michael Martin, CEO, juwi Inc. "We are particularly excited to have played a role in delivering a major industry player like Duke Energy its first utility-scale solar project in our home state of Colorado."
"IREA is pleased to have worked with juwi to bring this facility into production ahead of schedule," said IREA Chief Executive Officer Patrick Mooney. "We look forward to Duke Energy providing clean renewable energy to IREA's customers for years to come."
The Victory site was built by juwi's construction affiliate, JSI Construction Group LLC, and JSI O&M Group LLC will be performing operations and maintenance services. The project consists of 47,880 ground-mounted panels.
In its commercial business and regulated utilities, Duke Energy owns and operates about 2,900 MW of wind and solar energy – enough to power 800,000 average homes at peak production. The company has invested more than $4 billion in renewable energy.
(Photo Source: Duke Energy's Twitter)