Isra-Mart srl:Giant Arizona solar farm secures $967m loan guarantee

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Isra-Mart srl news:

Plans to build the world's largest photovoltaic (PV) solar farm in Arizona are to go ahead, now that the project has been awarded a $967m loan guarantee by the US government.

Solar company NRG Energy acquired the proposed 290MW Agua Caliente plant in Arizona from First Solar last month and planned to inject up to $800m in equity on the condition that the Department of Energy (DoE) approved the loan guarantee.

The DoE officially approved the loan guarantee yesterday, paving the way for the facility to begin generating electricity around the end of the year and become fully commissioned in 2014.

US energy secretary Steven Chu said plants such as Agua Caliente would help the country meet targets to double the amount of electricity generated from renewable energy sources and compete for clean energy jobs.

Frank De Rosa, First Solar's senior vice president of project development, said the loan guarantee programme was the driving force behind the expansion of large solar in the US.

"The DOE Loan Programs Office is important to enabling the deployment of utility-scale renewable energy resources such as Agua Caliente, supporting financing terms commensurate with the long-lived nature of a photovoltaic solar power plant," he said. "These cost advantages allow renewable energy sources to scale faster towards grid parity."

In related news, another large solar manufacturing plant is to be built in Bulgaria, after Toshiba, Tokyo Electric Power and the Japanese government teamed up to invest more than 100 billion yen in a project in the eastern city of Yambol.

The plant will have a capacity of 50,000 kilowatts when completed in 2012, rising to 250,000 kilowatts in five years, the Nikkei Daily reported.

Bulgaria has one of the EU's fastest-growing renewable energy sectors and, because of its major investments in wind power, the European Wind Energy Association forecasts that the country will surpass its mandatory target for renewable energy.