Duke buys photovoltaic solar energy project in Arizona

The Black Mountain Solar Power Project under construction in Mohave County is expected to achieve commercial operation in October 2012. UniSource Energy Services, a unit of UniSource Energy Corp. (NYSE: UNS) will purchase the power generated at the Black Mountain site through a 20-year power purchase agreement.

Duke Energy Renewables, part of Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK)’s Commercial Businesses, purchased the photovoltaic project from Solon Corp. Solon designed the plant and supplied its single-axis tracking technology, and will construct and continue to perform operations, monitoring and maintenance of the system after it is commissioned.

Duke Energy Renewables already owns two other solar energy facilities in the state: the 4 MW Ajo Solar Farm in Pima County and the 15 MW Bagdad Solar Farm in Yavapai County.