Yet another enormous solar plant is producing energy in California, Mount Signal Solar.
Built by Abengoa (MCE: ABG; Nasdaq: ABGB), it is the world’s largest single-axis solar PV plant, which means the solar panels track the sun.
At 206 megawatts, it will bring clean electricity to about 72,000 homes in the San Diego area. More than three million modules are spread over almost 2000 acres – each rotates on a north-south axis to track the daily path of the sun.
Abengoa doesn’t own the plant – they designed and built the project for Silver Ridge Power under a $365 million contract. Google invested $103 million in the project. At peak construction it employed over 700 people from the surrounding area, building it in a record 16 months.
In the US, Abengoa also built Solana – the world’s largest parabolic trough solar plant and the first to store energy – that came online last year in Arizona. It will soon complete the 250 MW Mojave Solar Project, another parabolic trough plant, in California.
Based in Spain, Abengoa recently began trading on Nasdaq (ABGB), in addition to its home market exchange, and will soon spin off Abengoa Yield, one of many "yieldcos" that allow investors to directly participate in the dividends from these projects.
Loading...