eSolar, a producer of scalable solar thermal power plants, has signed a power purchase agreement with Southern California Edison (SCE) to build a total of 245 megawatts (MW) of concentrating solar plants in the Antelope Valley region of Southern California. The series of fully operational plants will begin production in 2011.
Stuart Hemphill, SCE vice president, Renewable and Alternative Power, said "eSolar’s proposed solar projects promise to be modular, scalable, and easily and rapidly deployed. SCE is excited about the prospects of eSolar’s unique solar technology and the potential benefits it can bring for our customers."
On the heels of its $130 million funding round in April led by Idealab, Google.org, and Oak Investment Partners, eSolar is aggressively pursuing a novel approach to large or utility-scale solar projects. Leveraging a proprietary combination of optics and software in a pre-fabricated form factor, eSolar believes it can achieve economies of scale with a modular design that focuses on the key business obstacles that have characterized large solar installations–price, scalability, speed of deployment and grid impact.
"eSolar’s proprietary approach to solar thermal generation can be designed to meet the needs of utilities large and small–a smarter-sized footprint and variable configurations ensure power can be delivered where it is needed most," Asif Ansari, CEO of eSolar, said.
About eSolar
eSolar is an Idealab company founded by CEO Asif Ansari in 2007 to develop, construct and deploy modular, scalable solar thermal power plants. eSolar is based in Pasadena, California.
About Southern California Edison
An Edison International (NYSE:EIX) company, Southern California Edison is the largest electric utility in California, serving a population of more than 13 million via 4.8 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within Central, Coastal and Southern California.
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