New solar project coming to Yuma County
Andrea Turisk
YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY)- The Elisabeth Solar Project is set to take shape on public land near Dateland and is designed to generate and store hundreds of megawatts of renewable energy.
The Elisabeth Solar Project will soon be located in the heart of the Agua Caliente solar energy zone.
Approved by The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the facility will include solar panels and battery storage.
Derek Eysenbach, Project Manager with BLM, says, “It’s going to span a little over 1400 acres and out of that 1400 acres the project will have a nameplate capacity of 270 megawatts.”
The power will feed into the Arizona Public Service and California Independent System operator grids, improving energy stability for consumers across the Desert Southwest.
“By charging up these batteries during the day, and then discharging the batteries at night, it’s able to have power on call virtually around the clock,” Eysenbach shared.
Some locals are glad to see clean energy come into the area and see an alternative to fossil fuels.
Brian Jacuinde, a local says, “It’s clean energy, and in other cases where we have to depend on coal or gas. It’s better because there is no pollution and we know that solution brings a lot of air born syndrome and diseases.”
The Elisabeth Solar Project is still in the early stages, but BLM says construction is set to begin this June.