ESolar lands massive 2,000-megawatt deal in China

[wpsedgwick]

Source: Green Technology Daily

U.S. solar thermal power company ESolar Inc., whose investors include Google, signed an agreement Friday to build a series of solar thermal power plants in China with a total capacity of 2,000 megawatts, in one of the largest renewable energy deals of its kind.

Coming four months after an Arizona company, First Solar, secured a contract to build an equally large photovoltaic power plant in China, the ESolar deal signals China's emergence as a major market for renewable energy.

"They're moving very fast, much faster than the state and U.S. governments are moving," said Bill Gross, ESolar's chairman and the founder of Idealab.



Read more: http://www.greentechnologydaily.com/solar-wind/591-esolar-lands-massive-2000-megawatt-deal-in-china

[Brickbat]

1. "They're moving very fast, much faster than the state and U.S. governments are moving."

Partly because they have such lax labor, environmental, building and human rights standards. Let's not forget that.

[kirby]

2. And partly because

we just dont give a shit.

[SpiralHawk]

3. And we don't give a shit 'cuz republicon fatcat oil cronies...

are making too much money with things the way they are...

[WriteDown]

8. You must have missed this....

http://www.news24.com/Content/SciTech/News/1132/af6c357ed7f043b0add443fa5569f364/02-01-2010-02-06/Tortoises_could_halt_solar_plant

I wonder what China is doing for the local fauna and flora.

[krkaufman]

5. Exactly. Thanks for countering that rationalization. n/t

[WriteDown]

9. See post #8 for similar efforts. nt

[Duppers]

11. I'll 2nd that too.

nt

[daleo]

4. China doesn't have a lot of oil

Though it has a lot of coal, of the fairly dirty variety. I have heard from friends that have been to China that the air pollution is incredibly bad. So, they may well have to go into renewables in a big way. It would be advantageous to them on many grounds.

[Roland99]

6. That's way more than enough to send Marty back to the future!

[pampango]

7. The solar power plant will share infrastructure with biomass power plants.

"Solar and Biomass Plants to Work in Tandem in China"

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/solar-and-biomass-plants-to-work-in-tandem-in-china/

"China’s plans to build 2,000 megawatts of solar thermal power using technology from a California company, eSolar, will also include the construction of biomass power plants to generate electricity when the sun sets.

The solar and biomass plants will share turbines and other infrastructure, reducing the projects’ cost and allowing around-the-clock electricity production, according to Bill Gross, eSolar’s chairman. That supercharges the economics of solar,” said Mr. Gross in a telephone interview, noting that the addition of biomass generation will allow power plants to operate at 90 percent of capacity."

"A local shrub grown in the surrounding region to fight desertification, called the sand willow, will supply fuel for the biomass power plants, according to Penglai Electric.

“It’s an economical use of a resource that’s already in place,” said Nathaniel Bullard, a solar analyst with Bloomberg New Energy Finance, a research and consulting firm. “That’s a very savvy move, rather than attach an energy storage system to the solar project.”"

[malakai2]

13. 90 percent of capacity...

As in 90 percent all the time, like baseload? Or randomly hitting 90 percent during peaks on sunny afternoons and evenings? Do they really have the biomass to burn to hit a figure that high on a 2000MW plant?

[greiner3]

10. I had wondered what happened to Christopher Lloyd!

[Gregorian]

12. I'm shocked.

I wonder if they'll get a second contract. I doubt it. China will scrutinize this system and then copy it. Maybe not. It may be proprietary.

At any rate, COOL!