Dominion, Savion close solar power purchase deal

Kansas City-based solar and energy storage development company Savion LLC has finalized a 20-megawatt (MW) power purchase agreement with Richmond-based Dominion Energy Virginia Inc. for the $30 million Westmoreland County Solar project, the company announced Thursday.

Construction is expected to begin this spring and commercial operation is targeted to begin at the end of 2020. The Westmoreland County project is one of three projects that Savion is expected to construct in Virginia this year. The three projects combined cost approximately $150 million and will result in 115 MW of solar power.

Virginia Business reported in September 2019 on the other two projects that Savion is working on in Virginia. Dominion Generation, a subsidiary of Dominion Energy Inc., acquired two solar projects from Savion. The 15 MW Myrtle Solar project, is located on about 120 acres in Suffolk and is expected to generate power in the second quarter of 2020. The other project, the 80-megawatt Greensville Solar facility, will occupy more than 1,000 acres in Greensville County near Emporia. It is expected to be completed in late 2020. Power generated at the two sites will go to telecommunications company T-Mobile USA Inc. under long-term contracts.

“We are excited about the continued growth of the renewable energy industry in Virginia, which is demonstrated by corporate and utility investments in solar energy over the past several years,” Jeff James, senior vice president commercial transactions for Savion, said in a statement. “Our strong partnership with Dominion Energy enables our projects to support their sustainability goals as they work to add renewable energy to the grid.”

Dominion is working on other solar projects across the state. On Feb. 13, the company announced it would build a solar facility in Greensville County — its eighth facility to be dedicated to Facebook Inc. On Jan. 29, Dominion made public its partnership with Amazon.com Inc. to build a solar plant in Pittsylvania County, which is set to power one-third of the county’s operations and the e-commerce giant’s forthcoming headquarters in Arlington.

Dominion has committed to having 3,000 MW of solar and wind energy in operation or under development by 2022. The energy company has more than 7 million customers in 18 states and has more than $100 billion in assets.