SunPower To Build New Colorado Solar Power Plant

SANDY SHORE

DENVER (AP) — SunPower Corp. said Tuesday it will build a 17-megawatt solar plant in southern Colorado and sell the power generated to Xcel Energy Inc.

It is the latest in a handful of agreements announced by solar energy manufacturers and utilities as more states adopt standards requiring a percentage of electricity to be produced from renewable resources.

The plant will be built on a parcel near a SunEdison 8.2-megawatt plant in the Alamosa area about 160 miles south of Denver near the Colorado-New Mexico border, SunPower said.

San Jose, Calif.-based SunPower plans to hire about 200 workers for the construction phase and said the plant will be the second-largest high-efficiency solar PV power plant in North America when completed in 2010.

Xcel put a bid out for solar power last year to help meet a Colorado mandate requiring it to produce 20 percent of its electricity from renewable resources by 2020.

Xcel currently produces about 10 percent from solar, wind and other renewable resources, spokesman Mark Stutz said.