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Data center developer Switch backing 1,000 MW of solar in Nevada

Data center company Switch Inc. announced it is teaming with private equity firm Capital Dynamics Inc. on plans to construct the largest solar project in the United States, with photovoltaic installations in northern and southern Nevada.

The Gigawatt 1 solar project comes from an effort called Gigawatt Nevada, which Switch CEO and founder Rob Roy proposed three years ago, Switch said in a news release issued Feb. 7.

Roy has claimed credit for launching the Energy Choice Initiative in Nevada to advance competitively priced power, especially solar power. Nevadans overwhelmingly approved the initiative in November 2016 to change the state constitution to open the state's energy markets to competition and oust Berkshire Hathaway Energy subsidiary NV Energy Inc. from its position as the state's dominant regulated electric utility. Voters are set to vote again in November for a constitutional change that would require the state legislature to pass laws to open the state's electricity market to independent energy suppliers.

The Gigawatt 1 assets will be owned and developed by Capital Dynamics, which was described in the news release as the second-largest owner of solar projects in the country. Anchor-tenants for the project will include Switch and several of the company's clients that partner with Switch for data center and telecommunication services.

Further, a number of private and public parties are also in negotiations to join the project, Switch said, while asserting that the electricity output of the project will be provided at nearly half the cost of renewable power NV Energy provides industrial customers under the utility's green rider tariff.

Switch arranged to have two solar power facilities totaling 179 MW built in Apex, Nev. EDF Renewable Energy acquired Playa Solar 2 (Switch Station 1) and Dry Lake Solar Energy (Playa Solar 1) (Switch Station Solar II) from First Solar Inc. in June 2017, and the projects came online in December 2017. Through power purchase agreements, the output of the facilities is sold to NV Energy, which delivers the power to Switch's data centers through its utility subsidiaries Nevada Power Co. and Sierra Pacific Power Co.

Switch and Capital Dynamics will negotiate with their engineering, procurement and construction contractors and organized labor on contract terms to build Gigawatt 1 and estimate the project will create 1,250 construction jobs, according to Switch's news release. Switch said the solar projects would be built with panels made in the U.S., and included in its news release an endorsement from the environmental advocacy group Greenpeace.

No details were immediately available on the proposed locations or timeline for permitting and construction of the projects.