Power company Abengoa Solar’s Colorado-based U.S. division said Monday it will build a 250-megawatt solar thermal power plant in California and sell the electricity to Pacific Gas & Electric Co., a San Francisco-based utility.
Lakewood is U.S. headquarters for Abengoa, a Spanish company.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. PG&E said Monday it’s buying a total of 500 megawatts of solar power, half from Abengoa and half from NextEra Energy Resources’ proposed Genesis solar power plant.
Abengoa’s new plant, dubbed the “Mojave Solar” project, will generate 250 MW and be built in San Bernadina County, between Barstow and Kramer Junction, about nine miles northwest of Hinkley and about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles, according to the company.
“This means that we have a second, significant project that is a very serious development,” said Abengoa COO Scott Frier. “It’s a real project, now it can go through project financing.”
The company has applied for a loan guarantee through the U.S. Department of Energy’s stimulus money to help pay for the project, he said.
Construction costs are estimated at between $1 billion and $1.25 billion. If all permitting is approved, the project could break ground next fall, Frier said.
The project is expected to involve about 1,200 construction jobs and, when complete in 2013, have about 80 operations and maintenance jobs, Abengoa said.
The plants from Abengoa and NextEra will use solar thermal technology — curved mirrors in the shape of troughs to focus the sun’s heat onto flud-filled tubes. The heated fluid will be used to create steam for generating electricity from the sun.
Abengoa’s project will be on 1,765 acres of private land that was farmed for years, starting in the 1920s, but currently is largely fallow and left alone. The solar power plant is expected to use “significantly less water per acre” than the farm did, according to Abengoa.
The project is expected to produce power equivalent to the demands of about 90,000 homes, according to PG&E.
Santiago Seage, CEO of Abengoa Solar, said in a statement that “Mojave Solar is a project that we have been working on for several years. The permitting and engineering effort is very advanced and we are very proud to partner with PG&E to make this project a reality.”
Public hearings on the project are slated for December.
Abengoa’s first major project in the U.S. was announced in February 2008 with partner Arizona Public Service. The 280-megawatt power plant, called Solana, will bring an estimated $1 billion in investment to the state, according to Arizona Public Service.
In August 2009, Abengoa Solar announced that Xcel Energy Inc. had chosen the company to build a demonstration concentrating solar power plant at its Cameo coal-based power plant near Grand Junction. Abengoa also responded to Xcel’s request for proposals, issued in January 2009, for a 200 megawatt or bigger power plant using concentrated solar power technology.
cproctor@bizjournals.com
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