Tessera Solar has cancelled plans to build a 250-megawatts (MW) concentrating solar power plant in conjunction with the city of Phoenix, Arizona, according to a Phoenix Business Journal story.
Tessera is the development division of Stirling Energy Systems (SES), which began producing its modular SunCatcher systems this summer.
According to the story, Tessera couldn’t find a utility willing to purchase power from the $1 billion project. Financing the cost was also cited as another difficult hurdle.
Tessera has other large projects planned in California and Texas. Imperial Valley is a 750-MW project with the first 300MW contracted under a power purchase agreement with San Diego Gas & Electric near El Centro, California; Calico is a 850-MW project with Southern California Edison near Barstow, California; and Western Ranch is a 27-MW project with CPS Energy in West Texas.
Peter Wilt, Tessera’s senior director of development, told Phoenix Business Journal: “Quite frankly we’re not getting a lot of traction in the market. The market is starting to coalesce around the smaller projects.”
Read the full story at the link belo.