Solar Company launches Utility Scale Division
DALLAS: Sunfinity Renewable Energy, LLC (www.sunfinityre.com) has announced a name change (the company was formerly Sunfinity Solar, LLC), to accompany significant growth initiatives for the company, including the launch of a utility scale solar division with current plans in the works for three major solar projects.
Sunfinity began business in 2016. John Billingsley, Chairman and CEO, said “The new name, Sunfinity Renewable Energy, reflects a more aggressive and comprehensive vision for the solar company as one of America’s leading developers of clean, renewable energy.”
UTILITY SCALE SOLAR DIVISION
The utility scale solar division kicks off with several projects in early-stage development, including the Flatland Solar Farm in Scurry County, Texas. The project is located on a 950-acre secured site and has capacity ranging from 140-180 megawatts (MW), with expansion possible during later phases.
“If our Flatland solar project was online today, it would be among the five largest operating solar farms in Texas,” said Billingsley. “On the conservative end, Flatland will produce enough power for over 31,000 homes, depending on customer demand during the hotter months.”
The Flatland Solar Farm is expected to break ground in 2019 and require approximately 12-14 months to complete. Almost 690,000 solar panels will be installed as part of the construction process. A second West Texas project is in negotiations with a solar capacity of 120 MW. A third utility-scale solar project, located in Colorado, is currently under negotiations and will be announced at a future date.
Sunfinity’s utility scale division’s management team will be headed by W. Richard Grosdidier, formerly Director of Development and Head of U.S. Solar Power for European-based Innogy Renewables, where he was responsible for starting and building the company’s U.S. utility scale solar business. Prior to this post, he ran the utility scale renewable business at NRG Renew (formerly NRG Solar). As a founding member of NRG Solar, Grosdidier helped build the company from launch into a utility scale solar portfolio of 1.8 gigawatts (GW) through acquisition and green-field development in a four-year period. Grosdidier also spent five years at NextEra Energy in senior finance positions. Solar industry veteran Dallas Tharpe also has joined the utility scale solar team as Senior Vice President of Development Engineering; he was a founding member of the NRG Solar start-up team, leading their development engineering and joins Sunfinity from the leading solar independent engineer, Denver-based Luminate.
“The U.S. economy is in a state of rapid transition. Much of this change is being driven by growing availability and market demand for cleaner and lower-cost renewable energy,” Billingsley said. “Our utility scale solar division is well positioned to capitalize on this increasing demand.”
Source: Sunfinity Renewable Energy, LLC
