First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR) bought land set aside for Carrizo Energy Solar Farm from Ausra, which is getting out of the solar plant construction business to focus on manufacturing equipment for solar thermal plants.
The Carrizo solar plant was one of three plants to be built close together in San Luis Obispo County, California – the total electricity produced would have been 1000 MW.
First Solar bought an option on the land and says it won’t build a solar plant there. Instead, FSLR says it plans to use the land to reconfigure a solar plant it’s building nearby to reduce its impact and create wildlife corridors. The plant is a 550 MW project called Topaz.
Scrapping the Carrizo plant could help the other two plants get through the permitting process, which is currently bogged down because of concerns for wildlife and the concentration of so many large solar farms in the rural region.
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