Advanced solar project wins $2.1bn loan guarantee
The US Department of Energy has offered a conditional commitment for a $2.1 billion loan guarantee to support Units 1 and 2 of the Blythe Solar Power Project, a 484-megawatt solar thermal plant to be built in California.
Sponsored by Solar Trust of America, the facility will be built adjacent to the City of Blythe in Riverside County and is expected to create over 1,000 construction jobs and approximately 80 operations jobs. The plant will help avoid an estimated 710,000-plus tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually, equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions from over 123,000 vehicles.
Units 1 and 2 of the Blythe development represent the first phase of a larger project that, when completed, will generate 1,000 megawatts of solar power using parabolic trough technology. Units 1 and 2 will include HelioTroughT collectors, which feature a larger yet simplified design, making them less expensive to build and install, and more efficient than earlier trough technology. The project will be the first concentrating solar power (CSP) parabolic trough plant to use an air-cooled condenser unit, which will decrease water use by nearly 90 per cent compared with a water-cooled CSP facility. The project will sell all of its electricity output to Southern California Edison and will deliver power into the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) power grid.
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