First Solar, SCE sign PPA for 550 MW solar projects

Tempe, Ariz.-based First Solar (Nasdaq:FSLR) and Rosemead, Calif.-based utility Southern California Edison (SCE) said today they are planning to build two large-scale solar power projects in Southern California.

The installations in Riverside and San Bernardino counties are expected to have the capacity to generate 550 megawatts of photovoltaic solar electricity, or enough to power 170,000 homes. Financial details were not disclosed.

First Solar, which plans to engineer and construct the two solar facilities, would use its thin-film photovoltaic solar modules.

The projects include the 250 MW Desert Sunlight installation near Desert Center, Calif., and the 300 MW Stateline development in northeastern San Bernardino County.

The power purchase agreements still have to be approved by the California Public Utilities Commission. Pending network upgrades and receiving government permits, construction is expected to start in 2012 for the Desert Sunlight project and 2013 for the Stateline job.

The solar projects, expected to produce 1.2 billion kilowatt-hours of clean energy per year, would be completed in 2015.

California set a goal to receive 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2010, to which SCE is already contributing (see California Dreamin' of miles of solar). The state is considering legislation to boost the goal to 33 percent by 2020.

In 2008, SCE, a subsidiary of Edison International (NYSE:EIX), delivered 12.6 billion kWh of energy to its customers from renewable resources, making up about 16 percent of its total energy portfolio.

SCE signed an agreement to get up to 909 MW of wind power from DCE, an affiliate of New York's Caithness Energy, in 2008. The project, called Caithness Shepherd's Flat, involves the installation of 303 wind turbines across 30 square miles in north-central Oregon between 2011 and 2012. It's expected to generate 2 billion kilowatt-hours per year of renewable energy (see SCE, Caithness in wind power deal).

Today’s announcement isn’t the first time First Solar and SCE have worked together. In 2008, First Solar secured the development rights to three solar projects for SCE (see Powering California green). One of the projects, called the FSE Blythe project to be developed by First Solar, was expected be a 7.5 MW thin-film facility with the potential to expand to 21 MW. For SCE, the FSE project marked its first utility-scale thin-film solar project in California.