SEPA welcomes California solar power projects

19 August 2009

The Solar Electric Power Association welcomed the agreement between Southern California Edison and First Solar to build two large-scale solar power projects in southern California, US.

According to Southern California Edison and First Solar, the two installations will have a generation capacity of 550MW of photovoltaic solar electricity, enough to provide power to approximately 170,000 homes.

‘In the past year, we have seen a large and vital shift in solar power development,’ said Julia Hamm, executive director of SEPA. ‘Especially given the tough financial conditions, we continue to see that not only have utilities become essential partners for the solar power industry, but they are taking leadership positions more every day. The solar industry is rising to the challenge and showing excellent growth.’

Hamm added that the growth in new technologies was rapidly reducing the cost of solar power and expects to see solar power reaching parity with traditional forms of energy in the near-future.

The agreement between First Solar and Southern California Edison covers the 250mw ‘Desert Sunlight’ project near Desert Center, and the 300MW ‘Stateline’ project in northeastern San Bernardino County.

The state of California aims to generate 20 per cent of electricity from renewable sources by 2010. The state is considering legislation to add a goal of 33 per cent by 2020.

Copyright © 2009 NewNet

Tags: solar

This story was published on Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 at 11:14 am and is filed under North America, companies, solar. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “SEPA welcomes California solar power projects”

1. William says:

   21 August 2009 at 11:20 am

   Sounds to my ears. Solar power is the future and as the trend goes, building solar panels are more affordable now a days. There will be a day where this source of energy is the mainstream.

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