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Green light for solar and geothermal power deals in California

Solar Millennium's project is to use parabolic mirrors to capture the sun's energy

Regulators in California have given the go-ahead to a 20-year power purchase agreement for Southern California Edison to buy electricity from a 484-megawatt solar plant being developed in Blyth.

The California Public Utilities Commission also approved a contract for the San Diego Gas and Electric Company to buy geothermal energy from the Geysers plant in Sonoma and Lake Counties.

The Commission said the contracts would help the utilities reach their targets under the state Renewables Portfolio Standard program, which requires them to source 20% of their retail sales each year from renewable sources by the end of 2010.

The utilities are also chasing a target set out in a 2008 executive order from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to provide 33% of their power from clean sources by 2020.

Southern California Edison will now be able to buy power from the CA Solar 10 project, being developed by Berkeley-based Solar Millennium LLC, part of Germany’s Solar Millennium Group.

The project in Blyth, in Riverside County, is to comprise two 242MW plants using solar thermal trough technology, to generate 1,100 gigawatt-hours of energy each year from 2014. The technology involves use of thousands of parabolic mirrors to focus sunlight onto a heat transfer fluid, which can then be used to drive a steam turbine to generate power.

The Cal Solar 10 project is being fast-tracked through the permit process by the Bureau of Land Management, and could secure its approval by December 2010 in order to secure Recovery Act funding support.

Geothermal

SDG&E will buy its power from Calpine Energy Services, receiving 25MW from the Geysers geothermal project.

The four-year deal involves about 212 gigawatt-hours of energy each year, enough to provide electricity for about 15,000 households.

The deal was agreed back in March (see this BrighterEnergy.org story).