Commonwealth Utilities Corporation Executive Director Kevin Watson
THE U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs has awarded the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. $645,000 for a solar farm design on Saipan, CUC Executive Director Kevin Watson said.
CUC, in turn, awarded GHD Inc., a consulting firm, a contract to design a 20-megawatt solar farm and battery energy storage system on Saipan, he added.
This is a part of CUC’s ultimate goal of generating 100% renewable energy by 2045, he added.
“We will have a kickoff meeting [with GHD] in a week or two and issue them a notice to proceed … [so they can] start on the design of the solar farm,” Watson said.
“The solar farm will be connected to the grid and will have a battery storage unit for when the sun isn’t shining during the day. We have identified the land where the solar farm will be built and we’re presently acquiring that land. I will disclose this at a later date. The solar farm will generate 20 megawatts, which is almost 50% of the power that we presently use on Saipan. Our power demand right now is around 40-45 megawatts per day,” Watson said.
He reiterated that the contract covers only the solar farm design, not the construction.
“The grant came from the DOI-OIA office. We’d like to thank them for their continued support…. The construction will be a future project,” he added.
The estimated cost of constructing the solar farm is between $60 million and $90 million, he added.
“We’re designing the solar farm now so that we can use it for the construction phase. Actual construction may take 3-5 years down the road,” Watson said.
