A Virginia company plans to bid on 4,000 acres of state trust land to build a utility-scale solar farm outside of Buckeye.
Apex Clean Energy applied for a 30-year commercial lease on the parcel of land off of State Route 85 and Gas Pipeline Road in Arizona in 2023, according to documents submitted with the Arizona State Land Department. It goes up for auction in two weeks with the minimum bid starting at over $43 million.
The 350-megawatt Grand Verde Solar project would provide enough energy to power over 100,000 homes, according to Apex’s website.
More than $700 million in improvements are proposed alongside the solar array, which Apex and some additional equity partners are expected to cover. The improvements include new access roads, underground and overhead transmission, an on-site maintenance facility, a substation and battery energy storage systems.
If it wins the bid and gets Maricopa County’s approval to develop, Apex would plan to begin construction in the next 18 to 24 months and operations in 2028. Apex is the proposed long-term owner and operator of the solar project.
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Coal-fired power generation jumped 13% in the U.S. last year, according to a recent report from the federal Energy Information Administration. That helped push carbon emissions from the power sector up about 4% — the first rise after years of declining emissions. -
Commissioners voted to repeal the rules in July, stating that they had expired and the utilities had exceeded their target. Mayes contends the 2020 deadline was a target, not an official expiration. -
Sunday's record passed the previous high set earlier this year, on July 24, by 111 megawatts. -
Pinnacle West, the parent company of APS, reported record retail sales on its Aug. 4 earnings call. But it says overall profits are down $14 million due to debt and depreciations on its power plant and transmission assets. -
The campuses would manage nuclear waste, but could also mean other nuclear-related development, such as power plants, fuel processing centers or even nuclear-powered data centers.
