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Clovis to lease land to solar company

The city of Clovis has agreed to lease about 642 acres of land south of U.S. 60 off of Curry Road 9 to a large solar farm developer.

The property is adjacent to the city landfill, said Hillel Halberstam, managing member of SynerGen Solar, a solar development company headquartered in Baltimore, Md. Clovis, LLC is the wholly owned subsidiary the company created for this project.

“(SynerGen Solar) is focused on developing community solar and utility-scale solar projects in the mid-Atlantic and other select states nationwide,” Halberstam said in an email after an interview. “We specialize in developing solar projects on rooftops, closed landfills, rubble fills, brownfield and former sand/gravel pits, but we do ‘greenfield’ projects as well.”

City Manager Justin Howalt said in an email on Monday: “The City of Clovis has entered into a lease agreement with Clovis Solar, LLC. During the development period the city will be compensated $5,000.00 annually, during the construction period $250.00 per acre per year, and during the operation period $750.00 per acre per year… The term of the agreement is initially for 25 years with two additional renewal terms of five years each.

“The City of Clovis is excited for the opportunity to work with Clovis Solar, LLC. The proposed project not only maximizes the use of the property but also allows the City to diversify our revenue streams.”

Halberstam said in the interview that the project is in its initial stage and has not yet received permission from the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), which must perform a study to determine if the project will be “safe, reliable and doesn’t compromise the integrity” of the existing power lines.

“This (Clovis Solar) is a large, utility-scale project,” he said. The company plans to construct solar modules using a system that tracks the sun as it moves across the sky to maximize power collection. The company plans to operate and maintain the farm as well and then sell the electricity to the grid.

He said the company chose Clovis because it “has a good electricity infrastructure there,” which is a key factor. And, in general, New Mexico has “a lot of days of sunlight,” which will mean the yield factor is high.

SynerGen’s project in Clovis is planned to be a 100 megawatts solar farm and a 30 megawatts energy storage system, he said.

“We have multiple solar farms at various stages under development in multiple states across the nation,” he said. “We have about 560 megawatts of utility scale projects under development and 50 megawatts of community solar projects under development.”

The state of New Mexico last year signed into law the Community Solar Act, said Patrick Rodriguez, spokesman for the state Public Regulation Commission (PRC).

“The Community Solar Act calls for the creation of New Mexico’s community solar program,” Rodriguez said in an email. “The community solar program allows for the development of community solar facilities across the state to provide customers of a qualifying utility (investor-owned utility or rural electric cooperative) with the option of accessing solar energy produced at a community solar facility.

“The community solar facilities will be operated by subscriber organizations, which can be a qualifying utility, a local governmental entity, for-profit or nonprofit organization, or tribal entity.”

 
 
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