Construction Begins on Blythe Solar Power Project in California

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--One of the world's largest solar photovoltaic power projects recently began construction in California. The 485-megawatt (MW) Blythe solar project, owned by NextEra Energy Resources (Juno Beach, Florida), a subsidiary of NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) (Juno Beach), will take more than three years to complete.

The project will include three 125-MW components and one 110-MW component. It is being constructed by Blattner Energy (Avon, Minnesota) and engineered by WorleyParsons USA (Houston, Texas), which is part of WorleyParsons (North Sydney, Australia), on a 4,070-acre tract in Riverside County, about 86 miles from the Mexican border.

NextEra Energy Resources acquired the project from the now-insolvent Solar Millennium (Erlangen, Germany). NextEra had filed with the California Energy Commission (CEC) (Sacramento, California) to reduce the project's physical size and generation capacity

The project initially was to be a solar thermal parabolic trough facility, comprising four 242-MW units, but it changed to photovoltaic technology as the project moved through development and ownership changes.

The project had been held up as power purchase agreements were reached, one of which was acquired from healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente (Oakland, California). NextEra had difficulty in selling the power from the project because larger utility providers already were close to meeting California's 33% renewable energy mandate, which forced NextEra to look elsewhere for customers. Selling solar power directly to private companies is a growing opportunity for developers struggling to find traditional utility buyers.

Industrial Info is tracking three active solar projects being developed by NextEra in California, with a total investment value of $2.5 billion.

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