MOHAVE COUNTY, Ariz. — ContourGlobal celebrated the start of construction of Project Sterling, a hybrid solar-plus-storage facility located roughly 20 miles north of Lake Havasu City last week. The plant will combine 509 MWp / 450 MWac of solar PV with 360 MW / 1.4 GWh of battery storage across a footprint of more than 2,000 acres. Construction will continue through 2028 and involve an average of approximately 400 workers.
The groundbreaking ceremony was held in Topock and attended by Antonio Cammisecra, President & CEO of ContourGlobal, Javier Alvarez Canedo, General Manager USA of ContourGlobal, as well as
Jeremiah Dean, Renewable Energy and Land Use Manager at the Arizona Governor’s Office of Resiliency; Leo Biasiucci, Arizona State Representative for District 30; Ron Gould, Vice-Chairman and Supervisor for District 5 on the Mohave County Board of Supervisors, alongside local community members, county agencies and emergency services.
Local construction teams will carry out civil works, road construction and site logistics to install more than 760,000 solar modules and over 300 battery storage containers (1.4 GWh / 360 MW) using advanced lithium iron phosphate (LFP) technology, with liquid cooling and integrated fire protection. As construction progresses, ContourGlobal will continue to work closely with Mohave County officials and local communities.
Once operational, Sterling is expected to generate more than 1.1 TWh (terawatt-hours) of clean electricity annually—comparable to the yearly residential electricity demand of a city of 100,000 to 120,000 people—making it ContourGlobal’s largest renewable asset worldwide. The plant will serve a long-term PPA with Tesla covering around 90% of its expected output, representing one of the largest corporate solar-plus-storage PPAs ever signed for a single hybrid plant in the U.S.
Project Sterling also benefits from the Western States power interconnection, reinforcing Arizona’s role in supporting a more resilient regional grid. Representatives of the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) and the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) attended the groundbreaking event.
