South Mississippi Electric will add solar to its energy portfolio
Hattiesburg-based South Mississippi Electric (SME) announced plans to grow its renewable energy portfolio through an agreement with Origis Energy USA, with electricity to be generated at a 52 MW solar energy facility near Sumrall in Lamar County.
Origis Energy is a specialized developer of and investor in both utility-scale and distributed generation PV projects throughout the Americas and Europe. The core business of the company is the development or acquisition, construction, financing and operation of solar PV projects. In the U.S., Origis Energy has a pipeline of over 400 MW in solar for construction and operation before end of the year 2016.
The parties have executed a Letter of Intent to proceed with further negotiations toward a final agreement whereby Origis will design, develop, install and operate the electric generation site, and SME will purchase all power produced at the location. The project is expected to be operational by December 2016 and will provide electricity to about 10,000 homes in the first year.
This agreement comes on the heels of SME’s announcement in May that it would build five smaller solar installations (100 kW or less) at five Electric Power Association member locations — Coahoma, Coast, Delta, Southern Pine and Singing River electric power associations. Those solar generation sites are expected to be completed in first quarter 2016.
“For many years, our goal for generation facilities has been fuel diversity,’’ said Jim Compton, SME’s general manager and CEO. “Today we announce a new goal, to move beyond fuel: to add generation that does not require fossil fuel. Our members overwhelmingly want us to diversify our energy to include renewables, and we are responding.”
SME is a not-for-profit cooperative that generates, transmits and sells wholesale electric energy to 11 distribution cooperatives that deliver the electricity to 419,000 customers, or members. Collectively the group is known as the Power of 12.
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