Southern California Edison (SCE) and BrightSource Energy have reached agreement on a series of contracts for 1,300 MW of solar thermal power – enough to serve nearly 845,000 homes. According to SCE and BrightSource, this contract is the world's largest solar deal.
The agreement, which now requires approval from the California Public Utilities Commission, calls for a series of seven projects. The first of these solar power plants, sized at 100 MW and located in Ivanpah, Calif., could be operating in early 2013
The Ivanpah solar farm is expected to produce 286,000 MWh of power per year. BrightSource will then build and place in commercial operation each of its plants as quickly as permitting and infrastructure allow. The company will use its power tower technology, which uses thousands of heliostats to reflect sunlight onto a boiler atop a tower to produce high-temperature steam.
SOURCE: Southern California Edison
