Acciona Dedicates US' First New Concentrating Solar Plant in 16 Years

At 64 megawatts (MW) of generation capacity, Nevada Solar One is the largest CSP plant to be built in 16 years and it makes Nevada the largest per capita producer of solar power in the country. After roughly a decade of little growth for the industry, CSP is coming back strong, as is further evidenced by today’s announcement by Abengoa Solar that they will be building a 280 MW concentrating solar facility in Arizona.

The absence of any new CSP over the last 16 years leaves many people scratching their heads and asking themselves, why? There were some 354 MW of parabolic trough collectors installed in California’s Mojave Desert between 1984 and 1990. And those plants are still in operation, currently producing energy at around $0.12-$0.14/ per kilowatt-hour (kWh). The Nevada Solar One plant will produce electricity at around $0.15-$0.17/kWh.

Just by looking at the National Renewable Energy Labs CSP solar resource map, you might surmise that the US desert southwest has the potential to be the Saudi Arabia of solar resources (although I suppose Saudi Arabia could also be considered the Saudi Arabia of solar resources). However, the federal government must take the lead and adopt policies and incentives that can provide the necessary investment security for companies like Acciona, and Abengoa, to continue their renewable energy development in the American Southwest. And who knows, maybe even an American company or two can get in on a little of this some day. Wouldn’t that be something?