The loan guarantee sets the stage for more than 1000 construction jobs over the next several years. When done, the plant will produce as much energy as the largest coal fired plant.
From the Desert Sun:
U.S. Energy Secretary Steve Chu today announced that Solar Milliennium’s Blythe solar project has received a conditional loan guarantee of $2.1 billion in federal dollars, the largest loan guarantee the Department of Energy has offered to date.
The 1,000-megawatt solar thermal project, to be located west of Blythe, is “another sign that California is the center of solar (energy),” Chu said in a telephone press conference today. “The department’s loan guarantee program plays a critical role in the deployment of renewable energy.”
Preliminary road and fencing construction has started on the project, which won approval last year from the California Energy Commission and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
Read the full article here.