Recurrent Energy LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Canadian Solar Inc., has received unanimous approval from the Mississippi Public Service Commission for the build-transfer agreement (BTA) with Entergy Mississippi LLC.
Recurrent Energy will build the Sunflower Solar Facility on behalf of Entergy Mississippi. Once built, Entergy will assume ownership for the life of the facility. The plant will sit on approximately 1,000 acres in Sunflower County and will connect to Entergy’s transmission grid in Ruleville.
The BTA has a base purchase price of approximately $138.4 million with Entergy Mississippi on the 100 MW AC solar photovoltaic project. With the signing of this BTA – one of the first signed in the U.S. – Entergy will own the largest solar power plant in Mississippi.
“We’re happy to have commission approval to move forward,” says Haley Fisackerly, president and CEO of Entergy Mississippi. “The Sunflower Solar Facility will be key in helping us meet changing customer expectations. It will give us more sustainable ways to meet our customers’ energy needs while diversifying our fuel supply.”
Construction is expected to create approximately 360 jobs, and the plant will begin commercial operation by mid-2022. Once operational, Entergy Mississippi will own the Sunflower project, which will comprise 350,000 PV modules on single-axis trackers.
In 2016, Entergy Mississippi began studying solar as a renewable energy source. That year, the company built the state’s first-ever utility-owned solar project. The pilot project consisted of three sites in Brookhaven, Hinds and DeSoto counties. These sites helped answer questions about how solar would perform in Mississippi’s varied geographical regions. The project was the genesis for the Sunflower Solar facility.
Photo: Recurrent Energy’s landing page
What will the completed solar farm look like when completed?