California Edison Enters 20 year Solar Power Agreement

GetSolar Staff

The utility Southern California Edison got approval from state regulators at the California Public Utilities Commission to buy almost 500 megawatts of solar power from Solar Millennium's solar-thermal facilities in a 20-year contract.

The solar thermal facilities, in Blythe, California, are expected to be online and operational by 2014. Each one will generate 242 megawatts of power.

Solar thermal technology is a modern re-imagining of an old and simple concept. Just as conventional coal, gas, and oil-fired plants rely on heat to create steam which spins turbines, solar thermal power facilities use thousands of mirrors to heat liquids and create steam.

By doing so, they bypass some of the technical limitations of solar photovoltaic panels, which have only reached approximately 20 percent efficiency under the best circumstances. Solar thermal solutions, on the other hand, have reached conversion efficiencies of over 30 percent.

The state of California has passed a law requiring that all of its utilities buy or generate 20 percent of their power from renewable sources by the end of 2010, although some have been struggling to meet that goal.