Solar Frontier Americas, a subsidiary of Japanese firm Solar Frontier, has commenced the construction of two utility-scale solar projects in the US.
The two projects- the 67MWp Midway I and 40MWp Midway II solar parks-are located in California’s Imperial County.
Power generated from Midway I and Midway II will be sold to Pacific Gas & Electric and Imperial Irrigation District, respectively, under power purchase agreements (PPA).
Solar Frontier Americas Development, the utility-scale project development division of Solar Frontier Americas, will manage the projects, which will comprise inverters from Power Electronics.
Solar Frontier Americas development CEO Charles Pimentel said: “Solar Frontier has developed an extensive US project development pipeline of over 400MW and has rapidly established itself as a reliable and bankable player in the solar development industry.”
Blattner Energy will be the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for the solar projects, which will also feature single-axis trackers from NEXTracker for increased energy yields.
Imperial County District 4 Supervisor Ryan Kelley said: “Solar Frontier’s solar projects will generate hundreds of direct jobs and employ local workers in Imperial County, California.
“The projects will drive significant dollars in local sales and property taxes and contribute to the local economy.”
In June, Solar Frontier delivered 10kW of its copper indium diselenide (CIS) modules to the University of Tokyo’s solar sharing experiment on Sado island, Niigata prefecture.
The project aims to evaluate the potential economic impact of solar sharing on Sado Island, where the population is both declining and ageing.
Image: Construction work underway at Solar Frontier’s Midway I project in US. Photo: courtesy of Business Wire/Solar Frontier.