DENVER, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- A $60 million, 8 megawatt solar power plant planned for Colorado's San Luis Valley will be the United States' biggest solar project, it was reported Sunday.
The plant, a project of Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy, is expected to come online by the end of 2007 and will power 2,600 homes, the Rocky Mountain News reported.
According to the report, Baltimore's SunEdison has been selected to build the plant, though Xcel declined to comment on this. The company has scheduled a news conference for Monday.
SunEdison's acquisition of California's Team Solar Inc. last month makes the Baltimore company the country's largest commercial photovoltaic solar power installer, according to SunEdison.
Photovoltaic solar energy systems, with the familiar black rooftop panels, are most popular for small-scale, private energy production.
Colorado voters in 2004 approved an initiative "that requires utilities generate at least 10 percent of their electricity with renewable sources (such) as wind and solar power by 2015," the report said.
