Fotowatio Breaks Ground on (30 MW) Webberville Solar Plant in Texas (near Austin)

[jpak]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-26/fotowatio-breaks-ground-on-webberville-solar-plant-in-texas-1-.html

A California unit of the Madrid- based solar energy company Fotowatio SL completed financing and began construction on a 30-megawatt photovoltaic project in Texas.

RES Americas Inc., a unit of U.K.-based Renewable Energy Systems Ltd., will build the Webberville Solar plant and provide maintenance services for five years, Fotowatio Renewable Ventures Inc., said today in a statement.

Austin Energy agreed to purchase for 25 years the electricity generated by the project, which is 15 miles (24 kilometers) east of Austin, Texas, and is expected to be complete by the end of this year. Germany’s second-biggest state-owned lender Bayerische Landesbank provided financing, the company said.

<snip>

“The project will be a good model for us going forward and will enter commercial service before the end of the year,” McLanahan said. “We have another 85 megawatts of projects in the U.S. that we expect to put into construction this year.”

<more>

[OKIsItJustMe]

1. Sigh…

A Spanish company, a UK company, financed by a German bank.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Ohl

Russell Shoemaker Ohl (January 1898 - March 1987) was an American engineer who is generally recognized for patenting the modern solar cell (US Patent 2402662, "Light sensitive device"). …

http://techchannel.att.com/play-video.cfm/2011/4/18/AT&T-Archives-The-Bell-Solar-Battery