CUC awarded $645K for design of solar farm
The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. has been awarded $645,000 by the U.S. Department of Interior for the design phase of a solar farm on Saipan.
In an interview with CUC executive director Kevin Watson last week, he shared that CUC awarded consulting firm GHD Inc. a contract to design a 20-megawatt Solar Farm for Saipan as part of CUC’s ultimate goal of 100% renewal energy.
“The contract has been awarded to GHD. It’s a fully executed contract now and the final signatures were done last Wednesday. This is for the [design] of a 20-megawatt Solar Farm and Battery Energy Storage System. We will have a kickoff meeting in a week or two and issue them a notice to proceed. They are aware and they will start on the design of the solar farm.
“It’s a step in the right direction of our ultimate goal of reaching 100% renewal power by 2045,” he added.
Watson explained that a solar farm will produce electrical power through a solar grid over several hundreds of acres of land that will help the CNMI lower its dependence on fossil fuels.
“It will be connected to the grid and will have a battery storage unit for when the sun isn’t shining during the day. We have identified the land where the Solar Farm will be built and we’re presently acquiring that land. I will disclose this at a later date. The solar farm will generate 20 megawatts [pf power] which is almost 50% of the power that we presently use on Saipan. Our power demand right now is around 40-45 megawatts per day,” he said.
Watson clarified that while this award only entails the design phase, a construction phase is forthcoming.
“This grant came from the U.S. Department of Interior office of InsularAaffairs DOI-OIA office. We’d like to thank them for their continued support. It was a $645,000 grant. This is only for the design, not the construction. The construction will be a future project,” he said.
“The ultimate estimate for the construction of this solar farm from our engineering group was $60 million to $90 million. We’re designing this now so that we can use it for the construction phase. This is still several years down the road,” he said.
Kevin Watson
