Isra-Mart srl:Tessera continues hot streak for California's solar sector

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Calico Project makes it three from three for US solar industry
BusinessGreen.com Staff, BusinessGreen.

It has been an extremely good week for California's solar industry.

On Monday, Germany's Solar Millennium gained final planning approval for its 1GW Blythe solar project; on Wednesday BrightSource held the groundbreaking ceremony for its 392MW Ivanpah solar tower facility; and yesterday Tessera Solar made it three from three, securing planning permission for its proposed 663.5MW Calico Solar Project.

The company, which is majority-owned by Irish infrastructure company NTR, announced that it has been granted planning approval from the California Energy Commission (CEC), effectively giving the project the green light after it last week secured approval from the Bureau of Land Management.

Tessera is now looking to finalise financing for the project and could begin construction before the end of the year, allowing it to qualify for a key Federal support programme.

The Calico Solar Project is located on 4,613 acres in San Bernardino County, 37 miles east of Barstow, California. The company already has a 20‐year Power Purchase Agreement in place with Southern California Edison for the solar energy generated by the plant, and hopes to eventually provide enough energy for between 200,000 and 500,000 homes.

Significantly, each of the three projects to move forward this week will demonstrate different solar thermal technologies.

BrightSource will use an array of mirrors to concentrate energy on a central solar tower system that will convert the power into electricity, while Solar Millennium will use parabolic trough technology to similarly concentrate the sun's energy. In contrast, Tessera plans to use its SunCatcher solar dish technology, which also concentrates the sun's rays, but instead uses a Stirling Engine system to generate electricity.