SoCal Edison signs contract for massive solar energy project
Laura Wides ASSOCIATED PRESS
Posted: 8/20/2005 09:56 pm
LOS ANGELES — A huge solar energy facility capable of producing more electricity than all other U.S. sun-power projects combined is being planned for the California desert.
Southern California Edison signed a 20-year power purchase agreement Monday with Phoenix-based Stirling Energy Systems to build a 4,500-acre project that would produce 500 megawatts, enough electricity for a small city — about 278,000 homes.
“We’re very proud to be leaders in the country in bringing renewable energy sources into operation,” said SoCal Edison Chairman John Bryson.
“California is heavily dependent on natural gas. Natural gas costs have climbed extraordinarily. Any sensible electricity policy for a large group of customers needs to have diversity to it, and renewable energy need to be part of it.”
The deal is contingent on the California Public Utilities Commission’s approval and would begin with a pilot project using 40 of Stirling’s 37-foot-diameter dishes. The commission is scheduled to meet Thursday.
Solar energy makes particular sense in California, where peak usage coincides with the hottest hours and the sunniest days of the year.
The deal came a day after President Bush signed a bill that will give billions in tax breaks to encourage new energy options, including renewable energy production.
News of the agreement rippled through the Solar World Congress in Orlando, Fla., on Tuesday.
“It helps the public understand that solar energy is not something that’s going to happen in their grandchildren’s days,” said Brad Collins, head of the American Solar Energy Society, which sponsored the conference. “It’s happening right now.”
The 20,000-dish project would be built in the desert near Victorville, about 70 miles northeast of Los Angeles, with construction expected to be finished by 2010.
It would be capable of expanding beyond the planned 500 megawatts.
Edison’s 4.5 million customers won’t have to wait until the project is finished. The project is expected to begin generating grid-ready electricity when the first dish is working, said Stirling CEO Bruce Osborn.
The systems look like giant mirrored satellite dishes. They harness the sun’s rays to heat up hydrogen gas, which drives a small generator. The dishes are computer controlled and can rotate throughout the day to follow the sun across the sky.
Stirling dish technology has been tested for 20 years, but the proposed project marks the first time it would be used in a major commercial project.
“The real advancement is that this contract will make possible to take the technology from sound science to actually reality,” Bryson said.
rgj.com |
