Mesquite Solar 1 to commence construction

• 13 years ago (2011-02-07)
• Junior Isles

North America 1021 Renewables 776

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Sempra Generation's ambitious Mesquite Solar 1 project is scheduled to begin construction in mid-2011 and will be completed by 2013.

The solar farm will be constructed using hundreds of thousands of Suntech polycrystalline solar modules.

The Mesquite Solar 1 facility will generate in excess of 350 000 MW/h of clean electricity each year – enough to meet the power requirements of 50 000 homes. Carbon emissions of 200 000 tonnes will be avoided annually through the project.

The PV-based solar energy facility will be one of the largest in the world, but the 150 MW capacity is only phase 1 - Mesquite Solar 1 is intended to grow to over 700 MW when fully completed.

The solar farm will be located around 45 km from Suntech's solar panel manufacturing facility in Goodyear, Arizona. The factory will supply some of the solar panels for the Sempra Generation project.

Suntech Founder, Chairman, and CEO Dr. Zhengrong Shi said the Mesquite Solar 1 project will show that solar is "a competitive, fast, reliable and scalable solution for utility-scale electricity generation."

Dr. Shi says Suntech has set a goal to drive solar past retail grid parity in half of the world markets by 2015.