ContourGlobal breaks ground on Arizona’s latest utility-scale solar project
Global independent power producer ContourGlobal has begun construction on Project Sterling, a new solar and storage site near Arizona’s Lake Havasu City.
Located about 20 miles north of the city in the Valentine State’s Mohave County, the project will combine 450 MWac of solar generation with a 360 MW / 1.4 GWh battery storage system. ContourGlobal officials say Project Sterling will create 400 jobs during construction, which will continue through 2028.
ContourGlobal president and CEO Antonio Cammisecra says the site is strategically located in one of the sunniest regions of the U.S. Sitting on more than 2,000 acres of the Mojave Desert, the utility-scale project will provide significant generation for the region.
“Today’s ceremony marks the visible beginning of our partnership with Mohave County, the State of Arizona and our customer, Tesla,” Cammisecra said Oct. 6. “We are thrilled to celebrate this milestone with them and with the people who will now build this plant safely, with respect for the local community and the land of the Mojave Desert.”
Once complete, the project will contain more than 760,000 solar modules and more than 300 battery storage containers utilizing advanced lithium iron phosphate (LFP) technology. ContourGlobal representatives add that power generation is just the beginning of the project’s wider effects.
Creating long-term benefits
Representatives expect Project Sterling to generate more than 1.1 TWh of renewable energy every year once operational. Comparable to the annual residential electrical demands of a city of 100,000 to 120,000 people, the project will be ContourGlobal’s largest renewable energy project anywhere in the world.
Leveraging that staggering electrical output is Elon Musk-led EV titan Tesla, who signed a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) with ContourGlobal. The PPA will cover around 90% of Project Sterling’s output — about 900 GWh — representing one of the largest corporate solar plus storage PPAs assigned to a single plant, in history.
“Arizona’s sun has been shining on this land for billions of years. Project Sterling will put it to work by turning sunlight into electricity and storing part of that energy for delivery after sunset,” Cammisecra says. “Our teams engineered the project around the specific needs of our customer, enabling it to deliver reliable clean power for up to 16 hours a day.”
Additionally, the new project will leverage the Western States power interconnection, which the company says will “strengthen Arizona’s role in advancing a more resilient regional grid.”
“The project sits just off a historic stretch of Route 66 between Topock and Kingman, where infrastructure that once supported America’s westward expansion now gives way to infrastructure designed to power its next phase of growth,” ContourGlobal officials say.
ContourGlobal currently has a diversified portfolio of about 2.4 GW of renewable energy projects either in operation or under construction in the U.S.
