California Approves 250 MW CSP Project
NextEra Energy Resources, project owner and energy developer has received approval for a 250 MW concentrating solar power plant in California. The $1 billion project will include 2,000 acres of parabolic troughs and is expected to come on line within the next three years. This is the first itme in 20 years that a project of this kind has been approved. The next step is for Beacon to sign a power purchase agreement after which time, development can begin.
NextEra will be rushing to break ground on the Beacon Solar Project before federal grant programs expire the end of this year. The landmark project will be built and operated by Beacon Power, a subsidiary of NextEra. There are several other developers including Abengoa and Brightsource that are waiting for approvals for similar projects either in or close to the Mojave Desert. They to are hoping to get approval in time to break ground before the end of the year.
Although environmental concerns have grown over land and water intensive CSP projects like this one, regulators and utilities in California have been eager to get these projects in the works. They fear without projects such as this they won’t be able to meet the state’s goals for renewable energy. Many analysts have already speculated that California won’t meet their 20 percent target by the close of the year.