Sempra Energy Completes First Phase of Nevada Solar Power Facility

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) (San Diego, California) announced the completion of Phase I of its Copper Mountain Solar 2 facility in Boulder City, Nevada, on Tuesday, December 11. The facility will generate 92 megawatts (MW) of solar power, which will be sold to California utility Pacific Gas and Electric Company (San Francisco, California), a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NSYE:PCG), under a 25-year power purchase agreement.

Site preparation for the facility kicked off late last year. First Solar Incorporated (NASDAQ:FSLR) (Tempe, Arizona) acted as general contractor on the project, which uses First Solar thin-film technology. The project had an estimated total investment value (TIV) of approximately $552 million.

Site preparation for a 58-MW, second-phase expansion of the facility is expected to kick off in early 2014. Commercial operation of this expansion should begin in early 2015. Sempra completed its initial 58-MW Copper Mountain 1 solar facility in 2010. Further, Sempra solar work will kick off in the Boulder City area next year.

Industrial Info is tracking 126 solar projects with a combined TIV of more than $56 billion that are planned or under way in Nevada and California. While not all of these solar projects will make it past the planning stages, several will, particularly as California has one of the most stringent renewable portfolio standards (RPS) in the U.S.

California's RPS mandates that electric service suppliers obtain 20% of their power from renewable energy sources. This will rise to 33% by 2020, making California very thirsty for additional renewable energy sources.

Other solar projects are expected to be completed late this year or early next year in the two states. One of the largest of these is the 66-MW Alpine Solar Project in Lancaster, California. The plant is owned by Alpine Sun Tower LLC (Carlsbad, California), a subsidiary of NRG Energy Incorporated (NYSE:NRG) (Princeton, New Jersey). Like the Copper Mountain 2 project, First Solar acted as the E&C firm for the project, and the power will be purchased by Pacific Gas and Electric.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, and eight offices outside of North America, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.