Signal Energy, the Chattanooga-based subsidiary of EMJ Corp. which has grown into one of the nation's biggest builders of solar and wind farms, will start building another five solar projects in California and Texas under a new agreement announced last month with Intersect Power.
The combined output of the new solar installations will total 1.7 gigawatts and be generated from 3.7 million solar module to be installed over an area totally roughly 15 square miles across the five projects.
"Intersect Power brought us into their development process very early as a true partner, which provided the opportunity to jointly create the best solution for each project, resulting in the greatest value for the entire team," said Greg Pawson, president of Signal Energy, which will perform the engineering, procurement and construction for the Intersect Power projects.
Terms of the investment and building costs for the project were not released. The project is one of several under development by Signal Energy, which began in 2005 and has already built about 40 solar installations and another 40 wind installations.
Signal Energy has been working with Intersect Power over the past 18 months to design the massive projects and construction on the sites is slated to begin in 2020.
Plans for the solar plants include:
A project in Borden County, Texas, located northeast of Midland. The plant will have an installed capacity of 425 megawatts (MW) and is scheduled to begin construction in February 2020.
A project in Culberson County, Texas, located east of El Paso. The plant will have an installed capacity of 375 MW and is scheduled to begin construction in March 2020.
A second project in Culberson County. The plant will have an installed capacity of 250 MW each year and is scheduled to begin construction in June 2020.
A project in Riverside County, Calif., southeast of Los Angeles. The plant will have an installed capacity of 350 MW and is scheduled to begin construction in June 2020.
A second project in Riverside County. The plant will have an installed capacity of 300 MW and is scheduled to begin construction in October 2020.
"This portfolio will be one of the largest ever contracted in the United States," said KarlSchadlich, preconstruction manager of Signal Energy overseeing the projects.
Signal Energy has extensive experience constructing renewables projects in Texas and California and has been recognized by Solar Power World as a leading solar EPC for seven consecutive years.
In 2018 the company opened an office in Australia, where it is constructing two solar projects, including the Darlington Point Solar Farm, a 333 MW solar plant in New South Wales, and the Finley Solar Farm, a 175 MW power plant in the township of Finley.