U.S. utility to buy 553 MW of solar power

SAN FRANCISCO, California, USA, August 1, 2007. A California utility will buy green power for 400,000 homes from a major solar park in the Mojave Desert.

Pacific Gas & Electric has signed a 25-year contract with Solel Solar Systems of Israel to purchase the output from the US$2 billion Mojave Solar Park. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Solel would build and operate the facility, but still needs approval from the state Public Utilities Commission, Energy Commission and other state and local agencies. Officials hope to begin construction in 2009 and be finished in 2011. Three sites are being considered for the project, which would cover 6,000 acres and use transmission lines formerly used by a former coal plant near Laughlin, Nevada.

The solar facility would use 1.2 million mirrors and 317 miles of vacuum tubing, with rows of trough-like mirrors to heat the fluid which then generates steam to power turbines. Currently, most solar power projects use PV technology, and California supports that technology with $3 billion in rebates under its ‘Million Solar Roofs’ initiative.

The output from the Mojave Solar Park would be sold to PG&E customers in northern and central California, and would be the world’s largest single solar commitment. It would use Solel’s patented solar thermal parabolic trough technology which, over the past 20 years, has powered nine solar power plants in the Mojave Desert and is currently generating 354 MW of electricity a year.

“The solar thermal project announced today is another major milestone in realizing our goal to supply 20% of our customers’ energy needs with clean renewable energy,” says Fong Wan of PG&E. “Through the agreement with Solel, we can harness the sun's climate-friendly power to provide our customers with reliable and cost-effective energy on an unprecedented scale.”

“We are thrilled to bring 553 MW of clean energy to California,” adds Avi Brenmiller of Solel Solar Systems. “Our proven solar technology means Solel can economically turn the energy of the warm California sun into clean power for the state’s homes and businesses.”

Solel claims to be the world’s largest solar thermal company. It is providing components for new solar thermal plants currently under construction in the U.S. and Spain.

PG&E currently supplies 12% of its electricity from qualifying renewable sources under California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard program. It says 50% of its energy comes from generating sources that emit no carbon dioxide and is adding more green power resources to exceed the 20% goal by 2010. With Solel-MSP-1 and other recent green power agreements, PG&E has contracts to provide 18% of its future energy from renewables.

PG&E has signed several green power agreements, including an 85 MW wind project with PPM Energy, 7 MW of utility-scale solar projects with Cleantech America and GreenVolts, and a 25.5 MW contract with Western GeoPower for a new geothermal energy facility in Sonoma County, California. PG&E is seeking regulatory approval of these five renewable energy contracts.

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