Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) announced on June 25 that it has entered an agreement with NRG Energy Inc. subsidiary Alpine SunTower LLC to build a 92-megawatt (MW) solar thermal plant in Lancaster, California using eSolar technology.

The solar thermal plant will be built using eSolar scalable solar thermal technology. eSolar’s solar towers are much smaller than the large, central towers of other solar thermal energy systems. Each eSolar tower is only powered by a handful of heliostats, making the tower lower to the ground. The heliostats used in eSolar have a lower wind profile than other solar thermal systems, making it easier and faster to install, and safer and more durable in extreme weather conditions. The heliostats focus solar heat radiation to the towers, which in turn produces steam to turn a turbine. The spinning turbine then generates electricity without emissions or burning fuel. eSolar power plants are built with 46 MW solutions, consisting of 16 towers and their corresponding heliostats, taking up 160 acres of land.

The new solar thermal plant is part of NRG’s commitment with eSolar to build 500 MW of solar thermal plants in California and the Southwest US. The Lancaster power plant will be the first to be built under this agreement.

The Lancaster energy plant is scheduled for completion in 2012. It will produce about 192 gigawatt-hours of electricity a year, which is equal to the annual energy consumption of 30,000 average homes.

PG&E has been entering into energy contracts with private developers since 2002 in an effort to obtain 20% of the company’s energy from renewable sources by 2010 in accordance with California legislation. PG&E claims that more than 50% of the electricity it currently delivers to its customers comes from sources that emit no carbon dioxide in its generation. This would make it one of the cleanest electricity providers in the US.

eSolar is an Idealab company, with its technology backed by investors, NRG Energy Inc, Google.org, and Oak Investment Partners. The company is based in Pasadena, California.

NRG Energy Inc. is a Fortune 500 company that owns and operates one of America’s most diverse power generation portfolios. The company has 48 power generation plants across the US with approximately 24,000 MW of generation capacity – enough to power 20 million homes. It is listed on the NYSE as NRG.
PG&E is a subsidiary of the PG&E Corporation, one of largest combined natural gas and electric utilities in the US. PG&E has a customer base of 15 million people in northern and central California.


-  Mike R. Lopez

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Sources:

¹ http://www.pge.com
² http://www.nrgenergy.com
³ http://www.esolar.com