Under an “enhanced-use lease,” a team of Clark Energy Group, Arlington, Va., and Acciona Solar Power, Henderson, Nev., would build multiple plants on the Army base and produce a total of 500 MW of power.
The first element would be an array of photovoltaic panels at Fort Irwin's front gate that would produce 10 to 20 MW. The Army currently is working on a final leasing and management plan with the developer, says Army spokesman Dave Foster. He says the project would then need environmental approval, followed by a power-purchase agreement with Southern California Edison.
Completion of the project is currently estimated for mid-2014, but Foster says that with the launch of the new task force, the Army hopes to accelerate construction and finish ahead of that target date.
Construction of the rest of the plants, which would use photovoltaic and concentrated solar-power technologies, would take place later and extend until 2022. Power production could grow to 1,000 MW beyond 2022, depending on demand and transmission capacity.
Clark Energy is part of the Clark Group of companies, based in Bethesda, Md., which also includes contractor Clark Construction. Acciona Solar Power is a unit of Acciona S.A., Madrid.
Renewable-Energy Groups Welcome Army Announcement
Looking at the Army’s new task force, Monique Hanis, spokeswoman for the Solar Energy Industries Association, says, “The Army as well as the other armed services are finding what other Americans have already discovered, and that’s that solar today is affordable, reliable and ready to deploy.”
Hanis says that all of the armed services have the 25% renewables goal for 2025, adding, “It’s great to see [Army Secretary McHugh] being vocal about it and … bringing visibility to this.”
She says, “What this will do is, any time the government and corporate America invests, it helps the industry scale up and bring the cost down.”
Tom Vinson, American Wind Energy Association senior director of federal regulatory affairs, says, “Obviously we appreciate the Army and the other services’ interest in renewable energy. And the [wind-power] industry would like to work with the Army to figure out if there are mutually beneficial places where projects could be sited."
Vinson adds, “But at the moment, it’s too early to say how many of those there are going to be.” He also says that, “to date, the deployment has been pretty limited” for wind.
