World’s largest solar plant opens in California

• 10 years ago (2014-02-13)
• Junior Isles

North America 1021 Renewables 776

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The world’s largest solar power plant, the $2.2 billion Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, has opened in California this week.

The 400 MW, 13 sq. km plant is jointly owned by NRG Energy Inc., Google Inc. and BrightSource Energy, and can now finally begin supplying electricity to the grid.

The opening of Ivanpah was proclaimed as “a dawn of a new era in power generation in the United States,” by the president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, Rhone Resch. He also claimed that the plant demonstrated to the rest of the US that it is “going to be a global leader in solar generation”.

The plant will be the first of many new solar projects in the state of California, with utilities now expected to source a third of their electricity from renewables by 2020.

In 2012, the US federal government established 17 ‘solar energy zones’ as part of plans to support solar generation in the most environmentally friendly way possible, picking out tracts of land which could be developed with minimal impact.

The zones comprise about 450 square miles (1165 sq. km) in six states: California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.

According to statistics compiled by the US Energy Department, the solar industry currently employs more than 140 000 Americans at around 6100 companies. This represents an employment increase of nearly 20 per cent since third quarter 2012.