Pursuant to the contract, 8minutenergy subsidiary 70SM1 8ME and Gestamp will jointly develop and build the Calipatria Solar Farm project in Imperial Valley, California.
Construction of the project, to be spread across 160a will begin in in 2014 with the utility-scale solar facility expected to deliver 20MW of renewable energy to SDG&E by early 2015.
The plant’s power purchase contract awaits an approval from the California Public Utilities Commission and is projected to reduce 54,000mt of carbon dioxide per annum.
SDG&E electric and fuel procurement vice president Matt Burkhart said, "SDG&E has made a concerted effort to increase the number of diverse-owned suppliers we do business with in electric procurement resulting in our making significant strides this past year."
8minutenergy chief executive officer Martin Hermann added, "The solar farm’s annual production of approximately 48 million kilowatt hours (kWhs) of electricity will produce enough renewable solar energy to serve 9,000 households in SDG&E’s service territory."
