Xcel Energy purchases power plant in Colorado's San Luis Valley

Xcel Energy is the new owner of a 50-megawatt, Hooper solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant in Colorado's San Luis Valley.

The plant is estimated to provide power to 13,500 homes in Colorado.

"This expansion of our renewable portfolio in Colorado is yet another example of how Xcel Energy brings solar power to its customers," David Eves, president of Public Service Co. of Colorado, an Xcel Energy company, said. "We are adding large-scale solar that competes with and surpasses other forms of generation alternatives, in terms of price, over the life of the project. This benefits all of our customers -- both environmentally and economically."

SunPower Corp., which is also an owner, designed and built the plant. It monitors the site’s power generation from its control center in Austin, Texas.

The plant, which is on 320 acres, uses a SunPower technology that can provide a robotic solar panel, which allows the plant to reduce water use by 75 percent. It can also improve the performance of the plant by 15 percent.

"Xcel Energy is providing leadership in the promotion of large scale solar power development, and demonstrating how renewable technologies are part of the solution to ensure the health of our economy and our environment," Jorg Heinemann, SunPower's executive vice president, global power plants, customer operations and EPC, said. "SunPower's high-efficiency solar PV technology is competitively-priced for power plant applications, fast to install, and reliably delivers clean power, particularly during peak demand hours."