A 250-megawatt solar power plant has risen from the beautiful Carrizo
Plain in central California, a project that relied on a hefty federal
loan guarantee and will help the state meet its renewable energy mandate.
The project’s builder, SunPower SPWR +2.2%, announced Thursday the completion of the California Valley Solar Ranch in San Luis Obispo County. The project is located in a beautiful swath of land
that is ringed by mountains and blooms with wildflowers in spring.
Electricity from the field of solar panels will go to Pacific Gas and
Electric customers.
California Valley Solar Ranch’s completion reflects the emergence of large-scale solar farms in a state that has an aggressive goal
of sourcing 33% of its power supplies from renewable sources by 2020.
Many such projects have been proposed over the past 8 years, and the
state’s big three utilities have signed a slew of agreements to buy
solar power from developers in order to meet the mandate.
But shepherding those projects from conception to completion proves a
tough challenge for many developers. Raising money and securing permits
have been the two main obstacles that caused some to stumble and sell their projects or leave the project development business all together. Law
lawsuits filed by environmental and community groups also have stalled
projects or forced developers to modify their constructions plans and
donate money for land conservation.
While solar energy is a cleaner source of power, its development does
come at a cost to the environment. Large-scale projects take up
thousands of acres and typically located in the remote corners of the state.
The fact is, project developers, utilities and state regulators all have been going through this steep learning curve to create a new power generation market that relies on sun to produce electricity. The biggest chunk of the state’s power comes from natural gas power plants.
SunPower negotiated
with the Sierra Club and other groups and set aside land for wildlife
protection so that it wouldn’t face legal battles while trying to secure
permits for the California Valley Solar Ranch project. The project,
occupying 4,700 acres, received a $1.2 billion federal loan guarantee from a program that drew controversy for its $535 million loan guarantee to help Solyndra build a solar panel factory.
NRG Energy NRG -0.49%
bought the project from SunPower in 2011 and hired SunPower to complete
it. Construction began in the fall of that year. NRG is co-owner of
another solar power plant in California — the Ivanpah project that is built and being brought online by BrightSource Energy. Ivanpah also has benefited from the same federal loan guarantee
program. The program’s two other completed solar power projects are the 280-megawatt Solana by Abengoa Solar in Arizona and the 150-megawatt Mesquite Solar project in Arizona by Sempra Generation.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/uciliawang/2013/10/31/the-rise-of-a-giant-solar-power-plant-in-californias-central-plain/?ss=business%3Aenergy
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