PSE Issues Solar-Power Facility RFP

Puget Sound Energy has issued an RFP (PDF) to develop the Pacific Northwest’s largest solar-powered generating facility at the company’s Wild Horse Wind Project in Eastern Washington. At 500 kilowatts, the solar project would roughly double the state’s entire solar-powered electricity generation and be four times bigger than any solar facility now in existence in the Northwest, according to PSE.

“Just as Puget Sound Energy has been a leader with wind power in Washington, we want to advance the development of solar technology and other clean, renewable energy resources here in the Pacific Northwest,” said Stephen P. Reynolds, chairman, president and CEO of PSE. “The pilot project at Wild Horse will promote solar development and help PSE gain a better understanding of how solar power can be integrated into our broader power-supply portfolio.”

The RFP (PDF) issued today is for the design and construction of a 500-kilowatt solar facility in Kittitas County. The project would sit on about eight acres of PSE-owned land on the 9,000-acre Wild Horse site, located roughly 120 miles east of Seattle between Ellensburg and the Columbia River.

All qualified proposals for the design, engineering, procurement, supply, installation, commissioning, and testing of the fully integrated and operational 500 kW solar renewable energy system at Wild Horse must be submitted by Feb. 1, 2007. Those interested in submitting proposals should contact Stephen Emmert at stephen.emmert@pse.com, or 425-456-2584.

If all goes as planned, the Wild Horse solar project could be generating electricity by late 2007. The project’s power output would feed into the transmission system that carries electricity from PSE’s Wild Horse wind farm to homes and businesses throughout the utility’s service area.

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