July 30, 2008—Numerous announced plans to build large solar power facilities throughout the US indicate that relatively large-scale systems are becoming commonplace, says a report from the US Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
The trend is most apparent in concentrating solar power (CSP), with a number of facilities in the planning stages with capacities greater than 100 megawatts (MW). EERE notes that for PV systems, even a 1-MW facility is quite large, and megawatt-scale systems are now planned for many parts of the country.
Recent examples include:
- A 106.8-MW CSP plant near Coalinga, CA (Pacific Gas & Electric Company and a subsidiary of Martifer Renewables Electricity) that will produce power from biomass fuels when the sun is not available
- The four largest utilities in New Mexico, including PNM, will build a 100-MW CSP plant using parabolic trough-shaped mirrors to concentrate the sun’s heat (as will the plant in CA)
- Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) plans to build a 75-MW CSP facility at the site of its gas-fired Martin Plant in Indiantown; install 25 MW of solar panels (solar photovoltaic [PV] technology) at a site in DeSoto County, which will eventually be the world’s largest PV power facility (although larger projects are now planned for Europe, notes EERE); and install a 10-MW PV project at the Kennedy Space Center
- A megawatt-scale PV system at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in Pennsylvania
- A 16-MW PV facility north of Charlotte, North Carolina (Duke Energy Carolinas and SunEdison)
- A 2.36-MW PV system on the roof of the Atlantic City Convention Center in New Jersey (Pepco Energy Services)
- A 1.3-MW system and a 0.5-MW system on two warehouses in South Plainfield, New Jersey (enXco and Hall’s Warehouse Corporation)
- A 2-MW PV system on the roof of a commercial building in Fontana, California, and at least 7.5 MW of ground-mounted PV panels in Blythe, California (First Solar, Inc. and Southern California Edison)
