Daniel Englander

SoCal Edison Signs 245 MW PPA with eSolar June 4, 2008 at 8:29 AM

Google-backed CSP company eSolar has concluded a 245 MW PPA with Southern California Edison, a California utility. SCE will buy power over 20 years from eSolar’s 245 MW CSP plant in the Antelope Valley near Los Angeles. The first 105 MW stage of the plant is expected to come online in 2011, with the second 140 MW stage coming online in 2013. SoCal Edison is one of the country’s most active renewables developers and purchasers. The utility claims it buys close to 90 percent of the solar power produced in the U.S. In March, SCE announced the largest utility scale PV project - a 250 MW, $875 million commercial rooftop installation deal in Los Angeles. SCE partnered with warehouse and distribution company ProLogis on the deal, which will require more than 65 million square feet of roofspace.

This is also a kind of coming out party for eSolar. The CSP company raised a $130 million VC round from Google and Bill Gross’s IdeaLab in April, a big jump from the $10 million eSolar picked up from Google in January. The PPA is eSolar’s first commercial power deal and it definitely puts the company in the same league as the other CSP giants, such as Ausra an BrightSource. eSolar argues that its modular, pre-fab CSP plant design significantly reduces component and installation costs, while also letting the company provide scalable power plants for consumers of different sizes. This CSP-in-a-box plan involves constructing a series of modular 33 MW plants that can be built within six months on close to 160 acres - significant reductions in time and land use compared with the mega plants that Ausra and BrightSource are planning.

eSolar plans to capitalize on its pre-fab design to attract utility interest. Company CEO Asif Ansari has said the company has benefited from using smaller mirrors and towers that don’t require installation with heavy machinery. This eliminates a lot of regulatory permitting and insurance risk. Investor Bill Gross commented, “we want to show the world that if you build a prefabricated power plant, that’s the way to quickly meet renewable energy needs.” Isn’t that what he said about Eve.com, though?

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