The Blythe Mesa Solar Power Project, also known as the Blythe Solar Energy Center, is a 485

megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...

(MW_AC)

photovoltaic power plant A photovoltaic power station, also known as a solar park, solar farm, or solar power plant, is a large-scale grid-connected photovoltaic power system (PV system) designed for the supply of merchant power. They are different from most building ...

near the city of Blythe in Riverside County, California. It occupies about 2,000 acres of public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management in the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...

. The construction uses CdTe thin film panels from the U.S. firm

First Solar First Solar, Inc. is an American manufacturer of solar panels, and a provider of utility-scale PV power plants and supporting services that include finance, construction, maintenance and end-of-life panel recycling. First Solar uses rigid thi ...

, and the majority of the output is being sold to

Kaiser Permanente Kaiser Permanente (; KP), commonly known simply as Kaiser, is an American integrated managed care consortium, based in Oakland, California, United States, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney Garfield. Kaiser ...

and

Southern California Edison Southern California Edison (or SCE Corp), the largest subsidiary of Edison International, is the primary electricity supply company for much of Southern California. It provides 15 million people with electricity across a service territory of ap ...

under 20-year power purchase agreements.Energy Acuity-Blythe Project Timeline
/ref>California Energy Commission-Blythe Project Timeline
/ref> The project is located adjacent to the 250 MW McCoy Solar Energy Project, together forming a larger 485 MW complex.

Project Details

The current project configuration follows extensive efforts, which are detailed in the next section, to develop the site for other renewable energy facilities. These efforts were initiated in earnest around 2010, and concluded in June 2012 when NextEra Energy Resources acquired the resulting assets. In 2013, NextEra Energy submitted a proposal to modify the project size to three 125 MW sections, and one 110 MW section, for a total of 485 MW on 4,070 acres. Approval by the state was granted in January 2014. On August 24, 2015, the Interior Department publicly announced that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) had also approved the modification. NextEra began land clearing for the first production unit at the start of 2015. Kaiser Permanente announced in February 2015 that it would buy 110MW of electricity from the project.Kaiser to buy solar power from Riverside County project
Desert Sun, February 19, 2015 Construction activities ramped up quickly soon after in March 2015. In November 2015, the California PUC announced its approval of a

power purchase agreement A power purchase agreement (PPA), or electricity power agreement, is a contract between two parties, one which generates electricity (the seller) and one which is looking to purchase electricity (the buyer). The PPA defines all of the commercial te ...

between NextEra and

for 125MW of electricity from the second unit. The first two 110MW and 125MW units were commissioned in April and October 2016, respectively. Construction of additional units is pending identification of more buyers. In September 2017 the Modesto Irrigation District agreed to purchase 2.5 million megawatt-hours of electricity over 20 years.

Prior Development History

Blythe Solar was initially to be a 1000 MW, $6 billion

parabolic trough A parabolic trough is a type of solar thermal collector that is straight in one dimension and curved as a parabola in the other two, lined with a polished metal mirror. The sunlight which enters the mirror parallel to its plane of symmetry is foc ...

solar thermal Solar thermal energy (STE) is a form of energy and a technology for harnessing solar energy to generate thermal energy for use in industry, and in the residential and commercial sectors. Solar thermal collectors are classified by the United S ...

CSP plant, comprising four 242 MW units, located on of Bureau of Land Management land, about west of the city of Blythe.Bureau of Land Management
Map of Solar Energy Applications: Palm Springs – South Coast Field Office, Bureau of Land Management
The project was originally developed by

Solar Trust of America Solar Trust of America was an integrated solar industrial solutions company founded in 2009 and based in Oakland, California. The company was developing the Blythe Solar Power Project, the largest solar plant in the world in the Mojave Desert, amo ...

. Also Chevron Energy Solutions planned to participate in the project.Top 6 Utility-scale Fast-tracked Solar Projects
''Renewable Energy World'', September 1, 2010. Solar Trust was formed as a majority-owned (70%) subsidiary of

Solar Millennium Solar Millennium was a German company globally active in the renewable energy sector founded in 1998 in Erlangen, Germany, which is specialized in the designing and implementation of solar thermal power plants. The main activities are site selectio ...

. California will need from 15,000 to 20,000 MW of renewable energy to meet the 33% renewable electricity generation requirement by 2020. The

California Energy Commission The California Energy Commission, formally the Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, is the primary energy policy and planning agency for California. Created in 1974 and headquartered in Sacramento, the Commission'core respon ...

unanimously approved the project on September 15, 2010. The Bureau of Land Management cleared the project to go ahead on October 25, 2010. In April 2011, the U.S. Department of Energy offered a $2.1 billion conditional

loan guarantee A loan guarantee, in finance, is a promise by one party (the guarantor) to assume the debt obligation of a borrower if that borrower defaults. A guarantee can be limited or unlimited, making the guarantor liable for only a portion or all of the d ...

to Solar Trust, to reduce the interest on the $2.8 billion cost of building the first half of the project. The offer was rejected by Solar Trust. In August 2011, Solar Trust of America announced that the first half of the project would use photovoltaic panels instead of solar thermal power. Another trust partner, Solarhybrid (a German solar energy developer), was in talks with

for supply of photovoltaic modules. In 2012, Solar Millennium tried to sell its stake in Solar Trust to Solarhybrid; however, this deal collapsed and Solar Trust filed for bankruptcy protection. NextEra Energy Inc. was the top bidder for the project, according to an attorney representing creditors, acquiring the project in June 2012.

Electricity Production

References

External links

* *
Blythe Solar Power Project (BSPP) (CACA 48811)
U.S. Bureau of Land Management {{Solar power in the United States Solar power in the Mojave Desert Photovoltaic power stations in the United States Buildings and structures in Riverside County, California Solar power stations in California Energy infrastructure completed in 2016 2016 establishments in California NextEra Energy

Project Details

Prior Development History

Electricity Production

See also

References

External links