El Paso Electric (NYSE: EE) has signed a power purchase agreement for the full capacity of a 92-megawatt (MW) concentrating solar power plant to be developed in southern New Mexico by NRG Energy (NYSE: NRG) and eSolar, a producer of modular, scalable solar thermal power plants.
This project is part of NRG and eSolar’s recently announced plans to develop up to 500 MW of solar thermal power in California and across the Southwestern United States.
The plant is expected to be the first commercial-scale solar thermal project in New Mexico when fully operational in the summer of 2011.
“With 300 days of sun every year, a highly skilled labor force and a friendly business environment, New Mexico is well-positioned to lead the nation in solar energy production,” said New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. “eSolar, NRG and El Paso Electric are helping us make New Mexico’s renewable energy potential a reality.”
The site for the development is a 450-acre property in southwest New Mexico, about 10 miles from El Paso, Texas near the City of Sunland Park.
NRG Energy has a portfolio of diverse generation across the southwest with plants in California and Texas, including recently completed gas and wind developments.
eSolar’s modular approach, which requires approximately one-quarter square mile to produce 46 MW, enables utilities of any size to incorporate solar energy at a scale specific to their needs, the company said. This unique modularity, along with a proprietary combination of prefabricated parts, optics and software, allows eSolar to address the hurdles commonly encountered in bringing solar power online: price, scalability, speed of deployment and grid impact.
Headquartered in Princeton, NJ, NRG Energy, Inc.’s power plants provide more than 24,000 MW of generation capacity, enough to supply more than 20 million homes. NRG’s retail business, Reliant Energy, serves more than 1.7 million residential, business, commercial and industrial customers in Texas. NRG is a member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), a group of business and environmental organizations calling for mandatory legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
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