Michigan has its first massive solar contract

Michigan is making headway towards the state’s first big-time utility-scale solar project, as Consumers Energy and Ranger Power have finalized a power purchase agreement (PPA) for Consumers to buy the output of 100 MW of Ranger’s planned 149 MW River Fork Solar project. This is huge news for a state that, to date, has installed just 153 MW. This particular purchase agreement is for 20 years. That’s noteworthy, though it didn’t used to be. Just a couple of years ago the 20-year PPA was pretty much the industry standard, but we have recently seen a trend towards the 12-15-year range. Equally important is that the deal represents a significant step towards this project becoming a reality, as power contracts are one of the biggest necessities for a project before construction can begin. Speaking of construction, River Fork Solar is anticipated to take a year to construct, going on-line in either late 2020 or early 2021 and creating an anticipated 269 jobs along the way.