Luminant, a subsidiary of Energy Future, has signed an agreement to purchase output from SunEdison’s 116MW solar power plant in Texas, US.
Under the terms of the deal, Luminant will purchase power generated from the Castle Gap solar plant which is under development in Upton County, starting in late 2016.
Luminant will then sell the electricity to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) competitive market.
The power purchase agreement is said to be the largest in the US for a merchant generator operating in a competitive market.
The deal is a part of the Texas-based electric utility’s effort to serve customers with a balanced energy portfolio.
Luminant CEO Mac McFarland said: "As we evaluate our future generation needs, we focus on projects that are profitable and able to compete in the wholesale market.
"This agreement with SunEdison meets those goals since solar generation costs have become increasingly competitive."
Spread across 800 acres in West Texas, the Castle Gap facility features approximately 485,000 photovoltaic solar panels which can generate electricity required to power 58,000 Texas homes during normal demand and 23,200 homes during peak demand.
In Texas, Luminant has more than 13,700MW of power generation capacity including 2,300MW nuclear power.
Image: Luminant intends to sell power to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) competitive market. Photo: courtesy of franky242/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net.