An Arizona power provider is teaming up with two companies to build a USD 1.5 billion solar-power plant west of Phoenix that could help it surpass a state-imposed alternative-energy requirement. The plant, in combination with other Arizona Public Service Co. projects, would give the power company double the 4.5% of electricity from renewable sources that it’s required to produce by 2014. The plant is expected to be operating by 2013. The Starwood Solar I power plant will be built and run by Bethesda, Maryland-based defense firm Lockheed Martin Corp. It will be financed and owned by Starwood Energy Group of Greenwich, Connecticut. The plant will occupy about 3sq/mi of farmland in the Harquahala Valley 75mi west of the Phoenix city limits. At a capacity of 290MW, the plant will provide enough energy to power 72,500 homes while the sun shines, and it will keep the power flowing six hours after sunset by storing heat. The new plant will use solar-thermal technology. Instead of black solar panels, curved mirrors will focus sunlight on tubes of fluid, which will heat water and make steam to spin a turbine and generate electricity. The Arizona Corp. Commission must first approve the contract. The commission requires that utilities get 15% of their energy from renewable sources by 2025, with incremental targets along the way.
