US DOE offers loan guarantee for three solar power plants

• 12 years ago (2011-07-06)
• David Flin

North America 998 Renewables 752

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US Energy Secretary Steven Chu has announced offers of conditional commitments for loan guarantees of $4.5 billion to support three AC Cadmium Telluride (Cd-Te) thin film PV solar generation facilities to be located in California.

The DOE is offering a conditional commitment for a $680 million loan guarantee to support the Antelope Valley Solar Ranch 1 project, conditional commitments for partial loan guarantees of $1.88 billion in loans to support the Desert Sunlight project, and conditional commitments for partial loan guarantees of $1.93 billion in loans to support the Topaz Solar project.

First Solar is sponsoring all three projects and will provide Cd-Te thin film solar modules for the projects from a new manufacturing plant in Arizona and from its recently expanded manufacturing plant in Ohio.

Chu said: “These projects will bring immediate jobs to California in addition to hundreds more across the supply chain. Together, the projects will power hundreds of thousands of homes with clean, renewable power and increase our global competitiveness in the clean energy economy.”

The Antelope Valley Solar Ranch 1 project is for a 230 MW plant to be located in the western Mojave Desert, 80 miles north of Los Angeles. Power from the project will be sold to Pacific Gas & Electric.

The Desert Sunlight project is for a 550 MW project to be located in Riverside County, California. Project construction will take place in two phases. Phase 1 will generate 300 MW, to be sold to Pacific Gas & Electric, while Phase 2 will generate 250 MW to be sold to Southern California Edison.

The Topaz Solar project is for a 550 MW project to be located in eastern San Luis Obispo County, California, and the electricity will be sold to Pacific Gas & Electric.