Two electricity purchase deals have been approved on Thursday by California’s public utilities regulator. The purchase deals is question were made between two utilities and geothermal and solar energy providers.
The agreement made is for power purchase deals between CA Solar 10, L.L.C., a solar company and the Southern California Edison, as well as between Calpine Energy Services, L.P and San Diego Gas, and Electric Company.
The Southern California Edison is collaborating on the Palen Solar Power Project with CA Solar 10. The project is concerned with a concentrating solar power plant of 500 megawatt. CA Solar 10 is a subsidiary that is wholly owned by the solar developer Solar Millennium A.G. which is based in Germany.
This power plant would be raised around 10 miles east of Desert Center along Interstate 10. The power plant would be nearly halfway in between the cities of Blythe and Indio, in the Riverside country.
The Southern California would be able to purchase electricity that would be generated by the solar plant over a period of twenty years. In accordance to the commission, the solar plant would be capable of generating an anticipated 1,100 gigawatt- hours of energy of a yearly basis.
The second consent is for the Electric and Calpine and San Diego Gas. In this case the utility will achieve 212 gigawatt-hours of energy from the Calpine’s Geysers geothermal power plant found in Sonoma and Lake Counties each year until 2014.
The Palen Solar Power Project
The Palen Solar Power Project is concerned with a pair of adjacent and identical solar plants which have each a nominal capacity of 250 MW.
The Bureau of Land Management is responsible for the Palen Solar Power Project. It by designed by the latter as a fast-track project. This implies that it was given priority so that it gets all the needed approval for the permits this year itself. This project qualifies for the support from the 2009 Recovery Act.
Heat energy from the sun would be collected by the solar plant that will be equipped with solar parabolic troughs. The troughs or mirrors will then transfer the solar radiation to a particular receiver tube where the fluid will be heated up to 750°Fahrenheit. The final step will consist of producing steam for driving a traditional steam turbine that will in turn generate the electricity.
The Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger passed an executive order in November 2008 that establishes a 33-percent-by-2020 renewable energy objective for California, a leader in clean energy in the US.
Source: EcoSeed
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