Marana-based Trico Electric Cooperative has switched on a new solar farm with battery storage west of North Oracle Road near Catalina.
Trico on Thursday dedicated its Chirreon Solar and Battery Storage Facility, which has a generating capacity of 10 megawatts of photovoltaic power and 15MW of battery storage to supply power when the sun goes down.
Brian Heithoff (in tan jacket), CEO and general manager of Trico Electric Cooperative, is flanked by Trico board members, employees, dignitaries and stakeholders at the Chirreon Solar and Battery Storage facility in Catalina on Oct. 6.
The Chirreon facility is projected to produce more than 30,000 megawatt-hours of energy each year or enough to power about 3,000 average residential homes, said Trico, a nonprofit co-op with about 50,000 members in rural parts of Pima, Pinal and Santa Cruz counties.
Trico is partnering on the project with Virginia-based developer Torch Clean Energy and SOLV Energy, a California-based engineering and construction firm; with financing through CoBank, part of the U.S. Farm Credit System.
Chirreon, being built on about 90 acres of state-owned land in the Trico service area on East Edwin Road, west of North Oracle Road, is Trico’s second major solar farm project and the first with battery storage.
The co-op built a 10MW photovoltaic system in Marana that went online in 2018 and is partnered with other co-ops on a 20MW solar farm adjacent to the coal-fired Apache Generating Station in Benson.
Trico's Chirreon Solar and Battery Storage Facility, north of Tucson, is projected to produce enough to power about 3,000 average residential homes each year.
