San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) has signed two more 25-year power purchase agreements (PPA) with Soitec Solar Development, which, this time around, will total 125MW of solar energy produced in SDG&E’s service area. Just last month, the utility signed contracts with Soitec subsidiaries for three solar projects in the San Diego area that amounted to 30MW of solar PV energy. SDG&E stressed that the three previous contracts were separate contracts from those announced today.
Just like the previously announced projects, the two new PPA projects will use Soitec’s Concentrix concentrator PV technology with the solar modules being manufactured in Soitec’s new San Diego facility. The company’s new manufacturing site will feature a 200MW yearly production capacity, which will provide for the SDG&E projects the company has signed agreements upon. The exact location of the facility is set to be revealed this summer with construction expected to be completed within 18 months of breaking ground.
“These new contracts with SDG&E reinforce Soitec's decision to build its new manufacturing site in the San Diego area, and confirms the importance of the US market for our company,” said Andre-Jacques Auberton-Herve, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of Soitec. “We are very pleased to have a direct role in bringing 'home grown' solar energy to the people of San Diego.”
When the five projects between SDG&E and Soitec, which total 155MW, are combined with the 150MW agreement Soitec signed with Tenaska in March for its Imperial Solar Energy Center West, Soitec will have 305MW of its CPV technology deployed in the San Diego area. The two new power contracts between Soitec and SDG&E are pending approval from the California Public Utilities Commission.