Entergy is OK’d for solar contract

Deal is 20 years’ worth of energy

The Arkansas Public Service Commission on Thursday ruled that Entergy Arkansas can buy 20 years of solar power from a solar park to be built near Stuttgart.

Entergy will purchase the power from Next Era Energy Resources of Juno Beach, Fla., which plans to build an 81-megawatt solar energy farm on a 475-acre site about 7 miles southeast of Stuttgart. The facility will be known as Stuttgart Solar.

Construction should begin on the project next year and is scheduled for completion as early as 2017 or as late as 2019, Entergy said.

Based on testimony before the commission from Matt Wolf and Kurt Castleberry, executives for Entergy, electricity bought from Next Era will reduce customers’ monthly bills by about 8 cents over the 20-year life of the project as compared with the costs of market purchases of electricity, said John Bethel, executive director of the commission’s general staff.

“It will likely be different than that in each of the 20 years,” Bethel said.

In the first year of the power purchase, bills for Entergy’s 700,000 custom--

ers in Arkansas likely will increase by 14 cents a month, Entergy said.

The commission’s general staff had recommended that the commission approve the deal, Bethel said.

“From [Thursday’s] order, the commission found that the project is in the public interest and is beneficial,” Bethel said. “It will help provide another generating source in Entergy’s portfolio.”

There is substantial evidence that the solar farm will provide a stable, cost-effective source of energy, the commission said in its order.

“Entergy Arkansas’ actions in seeking renewable generation through the request for proposals were prudent,” the commission said.

NextEra will spend more than $120 million to develop and build the solar project.

Entergy intends to pay NextEra slightly more than 5 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity, according to information given at a July hearing on the proposal. There have been several high-profile cases where 20-year contracts have sold for 5 cents per kilowatt-hour, according to an executive at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Completion of the project is dependent on the renewal of federal tax credits for solar

energy farms.

Arkansas Electric Cooperatives Corp. announced in February that it and Aerojet Rocketdyne of Sacramento, Calif., plan to buy electricity from a 12-megawatt solar park at the East Camden Highland Industrial Park that will be built by Silicon Ranch Corp. of Nashville, Tenn.