First Solar has reached a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Chinese government to build a 2 gigawatt solar power plant in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, China.
The facilities will cover 25 square miles of the Ordos Desert with solar cells. When completed in 2019, the solar field (roughly the area of Manhattan) will generate as much electricity as two nuclear reactors or three coal-fired power plants, enough to power 3 million Chinese homes, reports Forbes.
On September 8, 2009, First Solar announced that under the MOU, the solar project in Ordos will start with a 30 megawatt demo project by June 1, 2010, followed by 100 megawatts, 870 megawatts, and 1 gigawatts projects to be completed in 2014 through to 2019.
In announcing the deal, First Solar indicated that build-out would cost upward of $6 billion, if it were in the U.S. The price in Mongolia, however, using low-cost Chinese labor, will be substantially cheaper, reports Forbes. The project will also operate under a feed-in-tariff that will guarantee the pricing of electricity produced by the power plant over a long-term period.
In February 2009, First Solar announced that its manufacturing cost for solar modules in 2008 (fourth quarter) had come down to 98 cents per watt, as I wrote in a comment under the article on the Topaz Solar Farm.
As Forbes further reports, China has announced nearly 9 gigawatts of solar projects since March 2009, and plans 20 gigawatts of solar by 2020. A quarter of that will likely be built in Inner Mongolia, alongside 7 gigawatts of wind, 310 megawatts of biomass and 70 megawatts of hydro-power.
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Comments: 6
BTW, how does that amount of capacity compres to the USA?
2007 solar (thermal & PV) in the USA: 38 plants producing an anemic 500 MW.
Seen in that light, a 2 gigawatt solar plant may not look much. However, solar/PV energy represented a meager 0.081% of the energy produced in the U.S. in 2007, barely more than the 0.066% back in 2000. First Solar still is the largest thin film manufacturer in the world, but most of its products are installed outside of the U.S.
So, I do hope that this will act as a wake-up call and that the U.S. will embrace solar energy more, as I discussed in the article What will power your next car?