Companies will build two solar power plants in California that together will put out more than 12 times as much electricity as the largest such plant today. The plants 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.
The power will be sold to Pacific Gas & Electric, which is under a state mandate to get 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2010.
At 800 megawatts total, the new plants will greatly exceed the scale of previous solar installations. The largest photovoltaic installation in the United States, 14 megawatts, is at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, using SunPower panels.
Spain has a 23-megawatt plant, and Germany is building one of 40 megawatts. A recently built plant that uses mirrors to concentrate sunlight, called Nevada Solar One, can produce 64 megawatts of power.
California’s 20 percent renewable standard is one of the toughest, and companies there are afraid they will miss a deadline in 2010. Pacific Gas & Electric expects that when the new plants are completed, its total will rise to 24 percent, but not until 2013.
– from nytimes