Feb 14 2011
Campbell Soup Company declared that it has contracted a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) and Land Lease Agreement (LLA) with BNB Napoleon Solar, a fully owned auxiliary company of BNB Renewable Energy Holdings, located in Exton, PA.
The company has signed the accord for building a 9.8 MW PV solar system over a 60 acre land area, owned by the company in Napoleon, Ohio.
The signed accord will require Campbell to lease the land to BNB, which will own the system and will finance the construction of the solar system, and will continue to provide operation and maintenance services. Under a singed PPA, Campbell will buy the total 100% power generated by the facility and this renewable power will meet nearly 15% of the total annual power requirement of its Napoleon Plant, Ohio. The solar facility will have around 24,000 solar panels thus making it one among the largest systems in the United States. The $10.5 million bonds, issued by the Ohio Enterprise Bond Fund, support a portion of the project. BNB is negotiating with SunPower to provide Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) services for the project and complete the installation with SunPower tracker systems and high efficiency solar modules. FirstEnergy Solutions has agreed to buy the Solar Renewable Energy Credits generated from the project.
On completion, the solar installation will produce over 14.7 million kWh of power in the first year of operation. In the 20 years of PPA, Campbell will save around $4 million dollars based on the energy projections and the price of electric power in Northwest Ohio. The project will offset around 250,000 metric tons of green house gas emission in the region, which can be equated to removing of 2,000 passenger cars from the road every year.