10 February 2011

First Solar agrees 250MW PV deal with Southern California Edison

Edison International company Southern California Edison (SCE) of Rosemead, CA, USA has signed a power purchase agreement with First Solar Inc of Tempe, AZ, USA, which manufactures thin-film photovoltaic modules based on cadmium telluride (CdTe), for 250MW AC of electricity (equivalent, in greenhouse-gas terms, of removing 30,000 cars from the road annually). The contract is subject to California Public Utilities Commission approval.

The solar panels will be ground-mounted on about 2500 acres of public land near Primm, NV. First Solar is developing the Silver State South project, which will interconnect with SCE’s proposed Eldorado–Ivanpah 220kV transmission line. The project is expected to begin producing electricity as early as 2014 and be fully operational by May 2017. It should create about 300 construction jobs, and the solar panels will be recycled after their useful lifespan.

“When we get projects of this magnitude, we make great progress toward our renewable energy goals,” says Marc Ulrich, SCE's VP, Renewable and Alternative Power. “This agreement represents another important milestone toward our goal of grid parity,” says Frank De Rosa, First Solar’s senior VP of North American project development.

Tags: First Solar Thin-film photovoltaic CdTe

Visit: www.firstsolar.com

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