Largest Solar Plant in the World Receives Final Regulatory Approval

Solar Millennium’s 1,000 MW Blythe plant checks the final box in its permitting checklist.  Still waiting on the federal Loan Guarantee, some hefty equity investors—and then it’s shovel time.

Solar Millennium LLC's Blythe concentrating solar project secured a Final 'Record of Decision' from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approving the plant's Right-of-Way Grant.

To see the updated map of U.S. CSP Projects and the tracker list, click here.

Project stats:

Project name:            Blythe (Phase I & II)

Developer:                 Solar Millennium LLC

                                  -which is a subsidiary of Solar Trust of America

                                  -which is 70% owned by Solar Millennium AG, 30% owned by Ferrostaal AG

Location:                   Riverside County

Technology:              Parabolic Trough (HelioTrough - engineering by Flagsol)

Capacity (Gross):     1,000 MW-ac (4 plants, each 250 MW)

Acres:                       5,950 (that works out to 6 acres/MW), although the right of way is 9,400

Electricity Purchaser: SCE

Estimated cost:          >$5.0 billion ($5.00/W-ac)

Capacity Factor:         26%

Solar-to-Electricity efficiency: 14%

Electricity output:        2,200 GWh/yr

Cooling:                      Dry (Air-cooled condenser)

Water usage (acre-ft):  600/yr

Storage (hours):          0

O&M Jobs:                 220 during 40-yr. plant life

Construction jobs:       1,000 during 2.5 yr. construction period

Expected online date:  2Q 2013 for first 250 MW plant, next plant 7 months later

 

This is a big win for all players involved, including the following members of the CSP food chain:

Receiver tube manufacturer:    Schott or Solel (Siemens)

Reflector/mirror manufacturer:  Flabeg (headquartered in Germany)

Engineering firm:                    Flagsol (JV between Solar Millennium AG & Ferrostaal AG)

EPC:                                     Kiewit (headquartered in Nebraska)

The obvious bottleneck is the Loan Guarantee program, which is effectively holding up Blythe, as well as the Tessera/Stirling projects.

Can the folks at the DOE make commitments in time for these projects to break ground by 12/31/10, so that they can qualify for the 30% Treasury Grant program?

We'll know soon enough.

As dry-cooled plants cost more and deliver less electricity (lower capacity factor), the estimated LCOE of this project is around $0.18/kWh.  Therefore, this project needs the subsidized debt from the feds in order to provide sufficient returns to attract project and tax equity investors.  Without a loan guarantee, it looks as though this project could be unfinance-able.

To see our previous articles on regulatory approvals, see:

Solar Millennium Blythe's CEC approval

BrightSource Ivanpah's BLM approval

BrightSource Ivanpah's CEC approval

Tessera/Stirling Calico's BLM approval

Tessera/Stirling Imperial's BLM approval

NextEra Beacon's CEC approval

And for a somewhat less rosy look at the future of the CSP industry, see: The troubled future of CSP.