First Solar wins $4.5 billion in federal support for California sun-power projects

[n2doc]

Sun-power developer First Solar scored big Thursday as three of its projects landed nearly $4.5 billion in long-anticipated conditional loan guarantees from the federal Department of Energy.

The awards for the Antelope Valley Solar Ranch 1, Desert Sunlight and Topaz Solar thin-film photovoltaic facilities –- all in California -– cap a blockbuster month for solar installations seeking financing.

The government doled out $680 million in conditional commitments to the 230-megawatt Antelope Valley installation, which is to produce enough power at its western Mojave Desert site to power 54,000 homes.

The 550-megawatt Topaz plant, based in eastern San Luis Obispo County, is expected to generate enough electricity for 110,000 homes. Desert Sunlight in eastern Riverside County, which is to be the same size as Topaz, got $1.88 billion.

The projects, which all are to use cadmium telluride thin-film photovoltaic modules made mostly at First Solar’s U.S. factories, will create 1,400 jobs at the peak of construction, the company said.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/06/first-solar-wins-45-billion-in-federal-support-for-california-sun-power-projects.html

More of this, please!

[Kaleva]

1. Edwards Air Force base is over 400 sq. miles in size.

One would think the govt. could set aside maybe 100 sq. miles of that for solar power generation.