Southern California Edison and BrightSource Energy Sign World’s Largest Solar Deal 

February 11, 2009 - Southern California Edison and BrightSource Energy have reached agreement to build solar thermal power plants which will generate 1,300 megawatts of electricity --  enough to provide nearly 1 million homes with true green power that adds no greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

“These contracts represent a significant addition to our renewable portfolio, which is already the nation’s largest.” said Stuart Hemphill, SCE vice president, Renewable and Alternative Power.

The full 1,300 megawatts of projects will produce 3.7 billion kilowatt-hours of clean energy and avoid more than two million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions annually – the equivalent of removing more than 335,000 cars from the road. 

The agreement calls for a series of seven projects totaling 1,300 megawatts. The first of these solar power plants, sized at 100 megawatts and located in Ivanpah, Calif., could be operating in early 2013 and is expected to produce 286,000 megawatt-hours of renewable electricity per year.

“This landmark agreement illustrates the increasing demand for solar thermal energy as a reliable source of utility-scale renewable power,” said John Woolard, CEO of BrightSource Energy. BrightSource, a start-up company with backing from Google, BP and Chevron, will build and place in commercial operation each of the plants as quickly as permitting and infrastructure allow.

Read more on this project at the Southern California Edison web site.

Related story:

An informative MarketWatch article on recent progress in generating electricity using solar thermal technology.