The US is fast becoming a solar energy generation hub, particularly in California, where a perhaps over-ambitious State-ordered 2010 renewable energy supply deadline has led to explosive growth in solar farms as energy suppliers recognise solar’s ability to deliver cheap, reliable and efficient electricity to customers.
California’s target will increase to 33 percent by 2020. Energy utilities in California are galvanised into action and are racing to get ahead in the renewable energy game, with solar farms becoming increasingly common. For many, it’s a case of go solar, or go under.
So it’s no surprise that at the beginning of December, just 12 months after construction began in January 2010, San Diego’s Sempra Generation announced it had completed what it says is the largest solar PV generation power station in the US, rivalling the top five behemoth arrays in continental Europe.
The 48 megawatt (MW) Copper Mountain solar facility used 775,000 thin film solar panels to power 14,000 homes in Boulder City, about kilometres south-east of Las Vegas. 350 workers were employed to complete the vast facility within the 12-month deadline, an unprecedented achievement, according the Sempra vice-president William R. Engelbrecht,
“This is a massive project. [They] did an outstanding job of meeting our aggressive goal to build the entire project by the end of the year.”
Energy Matters reported Sempra’s intention to build the station on the 380 acre desert site back in September 2009. The company has made good on its promise to complete work and begin generating emissions-free energy by 2010.
“Completing Copper Mountain Solar . . . demonstrates that large-scale solar can be developed at a rapid pace to help this country meet its clean energy needs,” said Jeffrey W. Martin, president and CEO of Sempra Generation. “We have a focused plan aimed at developing more than 1,000 MW of solar projects in California, Arizona and Nevada that will provide solid returns well into the future.”
