Canadian Solar said its subsidiary Recurrent Energy completed the construction on a 100-megawatt renewable solar power plant near Ruleville in the Mississippi Delta.
The Sunflower Solar Station is the largest solar installation in Mississippi and provides energy to power 16,000 homes.
Recurrent Energy developed and built the Sunflower Solar Station for Entergy Mississippi, which will own the facility. The Sunflower project is one of the first utility-scale solar projects to be constructed under a Build Transfer Agreement (BTA) in the United States.
In 2021, Entergy Corporation announced plans to triple its renewable energy portfolio over a three-year period. Entergy expects to have 11,000 megawatts of renewable energy generation by the end of 2030.
Recurrent Energy signed a BTA with Entergy Mississippi in 2018 designating the regulated utility to own the Sunflower project when it reached commercial operation. The BTA was approved by the Mississippi Public Service Commission in April 2020.
“Sunflower is our first build-own-transfer project and our first project in Mississippi. We look forward to supporting the growth of solar throughout the southeast United States and repeating this model which provides additional value for our customers,” said Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Office of Canadian Solar.
Entergy Mississippi, under a program called EDGE (Economic Development with Green Energy), plans to replace some aging natural gas plants with 1,000 megawatts of renewable energy over the next five years.
The Sunflower project employed Mississippi vendors and construction workers. Attala Steel Industries, based in Kosciusko, supplied 2,475 tons of steel for foundations. A-1 Kendrick Fence Company, based in Jackson, installed the perimeter fence. Signal Energy was the EPC provider.
The emissions-free, renewable energy plant sits on approximately 1,000 acres in Sunflower County and connects to Entergy’s transmission grid in Ruleville. The plant is a single axis tracking photovoltaic power generator with 272,000 PV modules.