Renewable

February 19 (Renewables Now) - The Basin Electric Power Cooperative will be buying the entire output of a 128-MW solar photovoltaic (PV) park that Geronimo Energy will build in South Dakota’s Pennington County.

The renewables developer, a subsidiary of electric and gas utility National Grid Plc (NYSE:NGG), said on Tuesday it has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) tied to its Wild Springs Solar Project. The duration of the contract and price details were not provided.

Planned to be the largest solar park in South Dakota, the Wild Springs complex will be located within the service area of West River Electric Association Inc. The latter is a cooperative member of Basin Electric, which gets power deliveries through the Rushmore Electric Power Cooperative -- one of Basin Electric’s two power generation and transmission channels. 

The proposed solar farm is scheduled to go live in 2022.

Not-for-profit cooperative Basin Electric supplies wholesale power to 141 member systems in nine states. In South Dakota, it operates through the East River Electric Power Cooperative and Rushmore Electric Power Cooperative. The new PPA marks its first solar power purchase on a large-scale.