Coordinates: 39°07′41″N 119°08′24″W / 39.12806°N 119.14000°W / 39.12806; -119.14000

Fort Churchill Solar Array

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Fort Churchill Solar Array
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CountryUnited States
LocationMason Valley, Yerington, Nevada
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StatusOperational
Construction beganmid 2014
Commission dateAugust 2015
OwnerApple Inc.
OperatorNV Energy
Solar farm
TypeCPV
Site area137 acres (55 ha)
Power generation
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Nameplate capacity19.9 MWAC
Capacity factor18.6% (average 2016-2023)
Annual net output32.4 GW·h, 236 MW·h/acre
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The Fort Churchill Solar Array is a 19.9 megawatt (MWAC) concentrator photovoltaics power station near the city of Yerington in Lyon County, Nevada.[1] It is the largest assembly of SunPower C7 tracker low concentration PV (LCPV) technology in the United States. The facility was constructed for Apple Inc. to service its Reno Technology Park Data Center.[2][3]

Project details

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The project occupies 137 acres adjacent to NV Energy's 226 MW natural gas-fueled Fort Churchill Generating Station in the Mason Valley.[4] SunPower constructed the project using 1,248 of its second-generation, single-axis C7 tracker systems.[1] The system reflects direct sunlight in order to concentrate it by a factor of seven onto high-efficiency (22.8% at 7x concentration) mono-crystalline silicon solar cells.[5]

Apple initiated the project with Sunpower and NV Energy to supply its growing data center business in the state with 100% renewable energy.[2] The resulting arrangement is unusual in that Apple owns the facility, leases it to NV Energy to operate and maintain under a 20-year contract, then repurchases the power through the NV GreenEnergy Rider opportunity.[3][6][7]

Electricity production

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Generation (MW·h) of Fort Churchill Solar [8]
Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Total
2015 1978 2179 2018 1984 1830 1614 1537 1262 14,400
2016 1309 1654 2461 2595 3322 3344 3764 3673 3585 2974 2861 2301 33,843
2017 1517 1686 2910 3205 3586 3782 3659 4021 3790 3687 2402 2262 36,507
2018 1679 2154 2758 3444 3652 4265 3633 3674 3534 2771 2166 1677 35,407
2019 1920 2101 2906 3438 3644 4013 4053 3946 3373 3275 2235 1509 36,412
2020 2090 2639 2819 3324 3723 3994 4149 3725 3248 2944 2188 1807 36,650
2021 1606 2052 2595 3135 3462 3172 3049 3194 2824 2224 1814 1384 30,511
2022 1511 1828 2223 2602 2971 2823 2579 2368 2301 2071 1517 1123 25,915
2023 1003 1336 1537 2713 2869 3179 3836 2285 1885 1716 917 426 23,702
Average Annual Production for years 2016-2023 ---> 32,368

LCPV technology commercialization

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SunPower's proprietary high-efficiency solar cell technology, marketed under the "Maxeon" trademark, was originally developed to meet the more rigorous demands of LCPV, despite ultimately having a much greater success in the flat-panel PV market in the U.S.[5] Among the features, copper is deposited on the back of the cells to lower electrical and thermal resistances; thus mitigating the risks from concentrator "hotspots" and improving reliability. In late 2011, SunPower announced that its C7 concentrator system technology could reduce the levelized cost of electricity relative to competing 'utility-scale' PV installations available at the time by 20%.[9]

In a strategic effort to achieve cost reductions at manufacturing scale - reductions similar to those rapidly being realized by commoditized PV using less efficient technology - SunPower entered a joint venture (JV) with the Chinese firm Tianjin Zhonghuan Semiconductor (TZS) to ramp-up LCPV production in late 2012.[10] In early 2014, SunPower announced the supply of 70 MW of "concentrator cell assemblies" to the JV's first 50 MW production line in Inner Mongolia for the first of two projects totaling 120 MW to be completed by the end of 2015.[11]

During the early 2015 completion of its Fort Churchill facility in the U.S., Apple announced its funding of another 40 MW of the JV's LCPV projects in China to support of its growing operations there with renewable energy.[12][13] The JV was reported to have ramped to three 50 MW production lines at that time.[14] Apple, SunPower, and Zhonghuan Energy (TZS's project development entity) indicated later in 2015 their intention to construct and jointly own an additional 170 MW of LCPV projects in northern China.[15][16]

In August 2020, SunPower completed a split of its proprietary cell manufacturing and sales business into a separate company Maxeon Solar Technologies (NASDAQ:MAXN).[17] TZS invested $298 million in the new entity and maintains close ties.[18] Maxeon continues to manufacture and sell solar panel technology under the SunPower brand outside of the US and Canada.[19]

See also

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References

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