Ørsted and Salt River Project (SRP) celebrated the official launch of the Eleven Mile Solar Center, a 300 MW solar energy project and 300 MW/1,200 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in Pinal County. The project is part of Ørsted’s $20 billion investment in expanding U.S. energy generation. Eleven Mile Solar Center is SRP’s largest joint solar and BESS project, providing power to businesses, homes and Meta’s data center in Mesa, Arizona.
“Solar energy combined with battery energy storage will be critical to ensuring reliable power supply as demand for electricity grows,” said David Hardy, Group EVP and CEO Americas at Ørsted. “Arizona has one of the highest electricity growth rates in the country, thanks to the surge in data centers and the retreat of U.S. manufacturing. With our first project in Arizona completed, we are pleased to help meet the state and region’s growing demands with reliable, domestic energy.”
To celebrate the economic benefits the project will bring to the local community and the significant clean energy it will contribute to Arizona, Ørsted hosted a celebration at Eleven Mile’s O&M facility, attended by US suppliers, SRP, community members and local and state elected officials.
“The Eleven Mile Solar Center represents a significant investment in southern Arizona and support for our state’s growing energy needs,” said Arizona Corporate Commissioner Lea Marquez Peterson. “The Eleven Mile project illustrates how clean energy can help us diversify our resources while ensuring the reliability of the local electricity grid.”
Eleven Mile Solar Center represents an approximately $1 billion dollar investment by Ørsted in clean energy for Arizona and will generate approximately $80 million for the local community for public services in the form of tax revenue. In addition, the project has created more than 1,000 construction jobs in the local area and will require additional roles in operations and maintenance over the coming decades. Ørsted supported US companies, such as First Solar and Fluence NEXTracker, in purchasing panels, batteries and tracking equipment for the project.
“I am proud of the efforts of our communities to support this partnership between Ørsted and Salt River Project,” said Eloy Mayor Micah Powell. “This energy project is a first in our region and will have a huge impact on energy reliability for our environment.”
With the addition of Eleven Mile, SRP will have nearly 3,000 MW of carbon-free energy – including more than 1,400 MW of solar energy – for its customers. SRP also has nearly 1,300 MW of battery and pumped hydro storage to support its electric grid. SRP is working to at least double the number of generation resources on its energy system over the next decade to meet increasing energy demands in the Phoenix metropolitan area as the company moves forward with the planned retirement of 1,300 MW of coal resources.
“The Eleven Mile Solar System’s energy and storage capacity plays an important role in achieving SRP’s ambitious goals of decarbonizing the economy and delivering affordable and reliable energy to our customers,” said Bobby Olsen, Associate General Manager & Chief Planning, Strategy & Sustainability Executive at SRP. “We value our partnership with Ørsted and Meta to provide more clean energy to our customers.”
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