U.S. offers loan aid for world's biggest solar plant

LOS ANGELES | Mon Apr 18, 2011 3:56pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Energy is offering $2.1 billion in conditional loan guarantees to support what will be the world's biggest solar power plant, the government's largest commitment to date for to solar energy.

The aid will support construction of the first two units of Solar Trust of America LLC's 1,000 megawatt solar thermal Blythe Solar Power Project, the DOE said on Monday. Solar Trust of America is a joint venture between German companies Solar Millennium AG and Ferrostaal AG.

"For the first time in mankind's history, a solar power facility will be built at a scale and output capacity equal to the very largest coal-fired and nuclear power plants operating in the world today," Solar Trust of America Chief Executive Uwe Schmidt said on a conference call with reporters.

The first two units of the project near Blythe, California are capable of producing 484 MW of electricity using solar thermal trough technology. The project will create over 1,000 construction jobs, 80 operations jobs, and will avoid greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those generated by about 123,000 vehicles.

Solar Millennium's technology makes electricity by using trough-shaped mirrors to heat a fluid that generates steam that turns a turbine. The Blythe project's total pricetag is estimated at north of $6 billion, with the first phase costing about $2.8 billion.

The announcement came a week after the federal program to support clean energy technologies escaped the axe in the final U.S. budget agreement for the current fiscal year.

Since then, the Energy Department has announced commitments to help fund two other large solar projects in California. The government finalized a $1.6 billion loan guarantee for BrightSource Energy Inc's Ivanpah solar thermal project on April 11, and a day later announced a conditional commitment for a $1.187 billion loan guarantee for a SunPower Corp 250 MW photovoltaic power plant.

California Gov. Jerry Brown last week signed a law that sets the state's renewable energy target at one third of total electricity generation by 2020.

The DOE loan guarantee program for renewable energy has provided funding for projects whose new technologies have had difficulty securing financing from traditional lending sources. Since the financial crisis, lenders have been less willing to take on the risk of pouring money into unproven technologies.

"Today we are in a global race to develop and deploy clean energy technologies," Energy Secretary Steven Chu said on a conference call with reporters to announce the loan commitment. "When we rev up the great American innovation machine, we can outcompete any other nation."

(Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

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Schwantz: Texas GP offers “exciting prospect”

Following news on Tuesday of the addition of the Circuit of the Americas™ in Austin, Texas, to the MotoGP calendar from 2013, Kevin Schwantz spoke to motogp.com about the ten-year deal to bring the World Championship to his home state.

Discussing the new facility, which is currently under construction and is due for completion in mid-2012, the 1993 500cc World Champion’s enthusiasm was evident at the prospect of the new event.

“Having watched the development of this facility I am genuinely excited about it, and I think it’s going to be highly attractive,” Schwantz told motogp.com. “From a rider’s perspective, which is how I look at things, I think it’s going to be a great track. It’ll be really challenging, it’s going to be safe and it’s going to be a nice, long lap. As a rider you will have to work to be able to put good laps together in order to be able to stay at the front of the race. There are a lot of good things and for me it’s a very exciting prospect.”

The input of Schwantz has been central to helping develop the circuit as one suitable for motorcycle racing, as he continued to explain: “One of my good friends here in Texas, Tavo Hellmund, is the one who put this whole project together. He is one of the three owners of the facility and when talking with him about it he was speaking about F1 – I was thinking that from a safety perspective we needed to make sure we didn’t do anything that would alienate us from bringing bikes here.”

“When they got into the design process of it I got fairly hands on. I don’t do a lot of work on the project day-to-day, but I sat in on quite a few meetings with the guys from the design group to make sure that we leave enough run-off for bikes, that it is safe enough for motorcycles, and hopefully that’ll be something that everybody notices.”

The importance of a long-term vision for the GP will, in Schwantz’s opinion, aid the raising of MotoGP’s profile further in the US.

“It’s all about the riders. If they like and love the place and feel it’s safe, they will be the biggest advocates of it and will talk about it and like racing here, and that’s what will attract the people here,” he said. “We want to try and make the profile of MotoGP here in America just like it is in Spain and Italy. We want it to be one of the top two or three forms of sports over here.”

“As riders we also know how excited people can be about racing. We want to be able to put everything in place to make it an event that everybody wants to come to, and one which you simply can’t afford to miss. From a logistical standpoint we are going to have a track that’s less than 10 miles from the state capital, with the airport being halfway between the city and the track. There are a lot of things that have been really thought through that will make it that much more enjoyable for the fans and a greater fan experience.”

Schwantz’s work in aiding the promotion of the new event will continue in the lead-up to the debut GP in 2013. “It’s exactly what I’ve been doing in the past at any opportunity I’ve had, with both Laguna Seca and Indianapolis. If I’m needed to do anything while all the MotoGP guys are off racing and there’s help needed with the publicity I’m hands on and am happy to do it,” he said.

“What I want to do is to try and get our sport the recognition it deserves. Laguna Seca has Wayne Rainey, Eddie Lawson and all those guys out there in California, and I do help there on occasions when I can, and it’ll be the same thing here in Texas. Home is close by, and I hope to be able to help promote everything that happens at the facility with motorsports in mind.”

“Having to travel only 20 minutes for my school to a site that’s a world class facility will be ideal,” he commented. “From the very beginning I knew what the facility would be like and for us something that hosts a World Championship level event and something close by here in Texas will be excellent.”

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