Topaz Solar Farm - 550-megawatt

Good news!

That's great news!

Solar is definitely taking over.

Good deal :)

Pacific Gas and Electric Company also signed an agreement with SunPower Corporation, which uses silicon-crystal technology, to build a 250 megawatts photovoltaic solar plant at a different location in the same county, and to deliver an average of 550,000 megawatt-hours of electricity annually.

The project is expected to begin power delivery in 2010 and be fully operational in 2012. The ranch would employ SunPower's proprietary crystalline PV solar cells, which generate up to 50% more power than conventional crystalline cells. The company would install its patented SunPower(R) Tracker solar tracking systems at the site, which tilt toward the sun as it moves across the sky, increasing energy capture by up to 30% over fixed systems, while reducing land-use requirements. SunPower’s panels are mounted at a 20-degree angle, facing south, and pivot from east to west over the course of the day to face the sun.

Together, the Topaz Solar Farm and the SubPower plant will cover 12.5 square miles of central California with solar panels, and in the middle of a sunny day will generate about 800 megawatts of power, roughly equal to the size of a large coal-burning power plant or a small nuclear plant.

Over the past six years, PG&E has entered into contracts for more than 3,600 MW of renewable power, including solar contracts that total more than 2,500 MW. PG&E now has contractual commitments for more than 24 percent of its future power deliveries from renewables, including wind, biomass and geothermal.

http://investors.sunpowercorp.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=328221
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/15/business/15solar.html

Highlighted at Solar Power lens

Thanks, James! OptiSolar's new plant in Sacramento will begin manufacturing solar panels in early 2009. When fully built out, the one-million-square-foot plant will be the largest photovoltaic solar panel manufacturing plant in North America, providing 1,000 green jobs and producing approximately 2,000 solar panels per day.

Earlier this month, California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger made the following announcement at the site of OptiSolar's new plant: "I am proposing we set the most aggressive target in the nation for renewable energy -- 33 percent by the year 2020 -- that's a third of our energy from sources like solar, wind and geothermal. But we won't meet that goal doing business as usual, where environmental regulations are holding up environmental progress in some cases. This executive order will clear the red tape for renewable projects and streamline the permitting and siting of new plants and transmission lines. With this investment in renewable energy projects, California has a bright energy future ahead that will help us fight climate change while driving our state's green economy." [source]

OptiSolar will sell its project development portfolio to First Solar for about $400 million in stock, in a deal that includes a power purchase agreement with Pacific Gas and Electric for a planned 550-megawatt solar farm in San Luis Obispo County.

First Solar, of Tempe, Arizona, is not buying OptiSolar. First Solar will take over OptiSolar’s pipeline, which further includes 1,300 megawatts of solar power projects which are in negotiation with Western region utilities and the rights to build solar farms on about 136,000 acres (210 square miles) of land, which could potentially accommodate 19 gigawatts of solar panels.

Both OptiSolar and First Solar make thin-film photovoltaic panels. Last month, First Solar announced that it had reduced its manufacturing cost for solar modules in 2008 (fourth quarter) to 98 cents per watt. First solar said it was confident that further significant cost reductions are possible and that it was proud to have a pre-funded, end-of-life module collection and recycling program, recycling more than 90% of each collected module into new products.

Many companies are close to the $1/watt milestone, at which point solar is cost competitive with coal. Since "clean coal" is more of a futuristic myth rather than a present reality, it makes more sense to deploy (and further develop) solar technology. Wasting time on developing "clean coal" technology is not only unnecessary - it doesn't solve the problems of environmental destruction from coal's procurement and storage of waste products.

Likewise, solar plants are being built at utility scale, as your article indicates. First Solar has production capability of a gigawatt per year, which is about the size of an average nuclear power plant. So not only is there no remaining need to develop "clean coal" technology - there is no need to build new nuclear power plants.

Indeed Steve, and this also removes the argument that electric cars weren't clean enough since the electricity came from coal. As I've shown in earlier posts, even where the electricity came from coal-fired power plants, it's still cleaner to shift to electric cars. But given the developments in solar energy, the chance that future energy will come from coal is getting ever smaller.