CEAC-2022-09-September
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Solar Farm Planned at Closed Louisiana<br />
Coal Power Plant Site<br />
PINEVILLE, La. (AP) — A Louisiana utility and a New Yorkbased<br />
renewable energy company say a big solar farm will be<br />
built near a coal-fired Louisiana plant that closed last yea .<br />
Cleco Power and D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments LLC have<br />
a long-term agreement under which Shaw Renewable will<br />
build a 240-megawatt solar installation and Cleco will buy<br />
power from it, according to a news release.<br />
GOT A STORY TO TELL?<br />
Cleco said in federal filings that if the Louisiana Public Service<br />
Commission approves the Dolet Hills Solar Project, it hopes<br />
the $250 million solar farm will provide power by 2025, The<br />
Advocate reported.<br />
It will use the power plant’s grid connection, a Cleco spokesperson<br />
said.<br />
“This solar project is another step forward in Cleco’s journey<br />
to becoming Louisiana’s leading clean energy company,” Bill<br />
Fontenot, president and CEO of Cleco Corporate Holdings in<br />
Pineville, said in the news release. “This project continues our<br />
efforts to reduce our carbon footprint while affordably and<br />
reliably serving our customers.”<br />
About 55 percent of Cleco’s power in 2021 came from natural<br />
gas, and less than 2 percent from renewable sources, according<br />
to the newspaper.<br />
In April, the company said $9 million in federal money will<br />
cover three-quarters of the cost of an engineering design<br />
study for a proposed $900 million carbon capture and storage<br />
project.<br />
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The solar project will create enough power for about 45,000<br />
homes, the news release said.<br />
Shaw now has nearly 700 megawatts in construction and contracted<br />
clean power projects in Louisiana, the statement said.<br />
In February, Shaw announced an agreement with Southwestern<br />
Electric Power Co. to buy power from a 72.5-megawatt<br />
Caddo Parish solar farm expected to come online in late 2024.<br />
The 650-megawatt lignite plant in Mansfield was one of<br />
Louisiana’s last coal plants, The Advocate reported last year.<br />
It was built in 1986, powered by coal from a nearby mine,<br />
and was jointly owned by Pineville-based Cleco Power and<br />
SWEPCO.<br />
Cleco Power serves 291,000 customers in 24 parishes. It owns<br />
nine power plants able to put out 3,035 megawatts, 1,335<br />
miles of transmission lines and 12,152 miles of distribution<br />
lines.<br />
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Volume 87 · Number 9 | 45<br />
<strong>09</strong>22 issue.indd 45 8/22/22 3:27 PM
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