Bechtel Breaks Ground on 120-Megawatt Catalina Photovoltaic Project

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Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Bechtel (San Francisco, California) has begun construction on the 120-megawatt (MW) Rosamond Catalina Solar Project in Kern County, California. Bechtel was awarded the engineering, procurement and construction contract for this photovoltaic (PV) project by owner enXco (San Diego, California), a unit of Electricite de France SA (EPA:EDF) (Paris, France). Bechtel also will build a 7.2-mile transmission line to connect the Catalina project to a nearby substation.

The project will be built in two phases: Phase I, at 60 MW, will be operating by yearend 2012, enXco's director of marketing and communications, Sandi Briner, told Industrial Info. Phase I has a total investment value (TIV) of about $240 million, according to Industrial Info's project database.

Catalina's second phase, which will have 60 MW of generating capacity, is scheduled to be operating by late 2013, Briner said. That project has a TIV of about $220 million.

Briner would not disclose the value of Bechtel's EPC contract.

The Catalina project is enXco's largest utility-scale solar project to be developed in the U.S., according to Tristan Grimbert, enXco's president and chief executive. "The project builds upon both the company's extensive experience in Kern County as well our long-term relationship with SDG&E. We look forward to once again delivering a successful project to SDG&E."

"This large, utility-scale project will help meet the growing demand for a mix of renewable energy sources," Jim Ivany, president of Bechtel's Renewable Power business group, said in a statement. "This project draws upon Bechtel's experience in both the renewable energy and transmission markets, and we look forward to working with enXco to make it a success."

San Diego Gas & Electric (San Diego, California), a unit of Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) (San Diego, California), will purchase all of the electricity produced by Catalina under a 25-year power purchase agreement recently approved by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) (San Francisco, California).

When both phases of the Catalina project are operating by late 2013, the PV plant will produce enough clean energy to power about 35,000 homes and will offset about 74,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, said Matt Burkhart, SDG&E's vice president of procurement. "We are pleased to be doing business again with enXco, with whom we already have two power purchase agreements for wind energy," he said in a statement.

The first phase of the Catalina project will use 25 MW of PV panels manufactured by Solar Frontier (Santa Clara, California), a subsidiary of Showa Shell Sekiyu K.K. (TYO:5002) (Tokyo, Japan). Earlier this year enXco agreed to purchase up to 150 MW of Solar Frontier's copper indium selenium (CIS) thin-film PV modules. Beyond the first 25 MW of Catalina's Phase I, though, Briner said enXco has not decided what PV technology it will use at the project.

"This is a landmark moment not only for Solar Frontier, but the CIS industry as a whole," said Gregory W. Ashley, chief operating officer of Solar Frontier Americas. "We have demonstrated successfully that the unique characteristics of CIS technology are compelling to major customers by delivering more kilowatt-hours (kWh) over the lifetime of a project for a lower cost. We see this project as a launch pad for ever greater CIS achievement in the United States and across the world. We are pleased to work with enXco, which has shown its commitment to the industry by continuing to develop and build utility scale solar projects."

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