McNeil, Arizona — The Sulfur Springs Valley Electric Cooperative is building a new substation and solar power plant in McNeil. This substation will serve his 3,000 people in the area.

CEO Jason Bowling said the company built its first substation in McNeil 85 years ago, and that this new substation will replace the old substation, making it the first substation to have batteries as backup. said that the plant was a solar power plant.

Due to changes in the natural gas market, renewable energy has become more popular with utilities and consumers and has always proven more efficient.

“Solar power in Arizona is the best form of renewable energy available to us,” said Dan Wilson, senior vice president of operations for the Sulfur Springs Valley Power Cooperative. It’s a fixed-cost electricity supply,” he said. So, uh, it’s a fascinating, uh, addition to our power supply. “

The solar array covers 160 acres and has 60,000 panels. Batteries in gated substations store excess power, so you have power when the sun goes down.

“This allows us to generate energy at a fixed price regardless of the whims of market conditions, shielding our members from volatility in energy market prices,” Bowling said.

The panel will be operational in June and the project is expected to be completed by the end of July.