Solar Millennium subsidiary Solar Trust of America also received the go-ahead in late 2010 for the 500MW Amargosa Farm Road parabolic-trough project. Solarhybrid acquired insolvent Solar Millennium’s US portfolio last month.
Under the Valley Electric Association’s proposed link with the California Independent System Operator, all of these projects would be in position to be considered “in-state” for the purpose of California’s renewable portfolio standard.
“California’s aggressive renewables targets will need to be met by in-state as well as out-of-state resources,” says Iberdrola Renewables spokesman Paul Copleman, “and as long as out-of-state projects have appropriate transmission in California, then they should be treated as high-quality resources.”
The biggest beneficiary of the VEA’s efforts to export power to California looks to be BrightSource Energy.
The company is seeking a permit for the 500MW Hidden Hills concentrating solar power-tower project, planned for private land in an isolated area just inside California. But to get the power to California utilities, transmission lines must be built heading east into Nevada, where they would connect to existing transmission going back into California.
The VEA has applied to the Bureau of Land Management to build a 500kV transmission line to serve Hidden Hills. Another BrightSource development, the 750MW Sand Valley, southeast of Pahrump, southern Nevada, would also be near this line.
VEA chief executive Thomas Husted says: “This was a great opportunity for the utility to foster economic development by building transmission lines that enable new generating plants.
“That adds tax base. It adds jobs. It fills homes that are empty. So there were a lot of very good reasons that we would take this position, and they happen to converge.”
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