Abengoa Solar has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) to supply the electricity generated by the new Mojave CSP plant.
Once operational in 2013, the Mojave CSP project, which will be located in San Bernardino County, California, will generate 250MW of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) and create 1,200 construction jobs, and 80 permanent jobs. The solar thermal project has been granted a certificate by the California Energy Commission.
Santiago Seage, CEO of Abengoa Solar said, ‘Mojave Solar is a project 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.’
Construction for the project, which is expected to begin by the end of 2010, will be sited on 1,765 acres of private land and will use less water per acre than was used for agricultural purposes.
‘The location has been carefully chosen and the plant has been specifically configured to minimize environmental impacts on the desert,’ said Scott Frier, COO of Abengoa Solar.
The Mojave Solar Project will use the same Abengoa Solar parabolic trough technology, using parabolic mirrors arranged in long troughs and track the sun’s movement continually during the day. A heat transfer fluid circulating inside the pipe reaches temperatures of more than 700 degrees Fahrenheit, used to generate steam that drives a conventional steam turbine.
In addition to the Mojave Solar Project in California and the Solana Project in Arizona, Abengoa Solar has nine CSP plants under construction or operation including the Mojave Solar project.
Abengoa Solar operates in more than 70 countries through five business units. It has US headquarters in Lakewood, Colorado, as well as offices in Arizona and California.
