Lightsource BP has named McCarthy Building Companies as the EPC contractor for the 300MW Bighorn Solar project in Pueblo, Colorado.
Construction at the site is set to begin this autumn.
The project is located on 1,800 acres of land on EVRAZ Rocky Mountain Steel property in Pueblo, making it the largest on-site solar facility dedicated to a single customer in the country.
Xcel Energy, as the electrical provider for the steel mill, will purchase the electricity wholesale from Lightsource bp to sell to EVRAZ Rocky Mountain Steel, providing cost effective and predictable electricity rates, enabling the steel mill to remain in Pueblo and expand their operations.
Bighorn will see the installation of nearly 750,000 Canadian Solar crystalline solar panels and NEXTracker single-axis trackers.
Lightsource BP Americas chief executive Kevin Smith said: “We selected the McCarthy team as our EPC contractor both for their track record in successfully building large utility-scale projects here in Colorado as well as their commitment to hiring a local workforce.”
Colorado governor Jared Polis said the project was the “latest example of the sweeping benefits of investing in renewable energy, including cutting pollution, and increasing local job growth”.
He added: “Colorado and the Pueblo community continue to advance a bold national model about how to take advantage and harness the power of the clean energy economy.”
Bighorn Solar is expected to complete in late 2021.
McCarthy said it was implementing principles of Training Within Industry (TWI), a program originally developed by United States Department of War in the 1940s to help re-train workers with little or no experience in solar installation to quickly and reliably work on moderately complex tasks in solar construction.
It added that this would help more people begin careers in renewable energy.