Solar Power From Peabody to California

Soitec Solar Development LLC of Peabody recently completed construction of a solar power plant in Southern California which is the largest facility of its kind, says the company.

A press release says the announcement was made last week at the Intersolar North America 2013 conference in San Francisco. The Peabody office, which is located in Centennial Industrial Park, serves as the company's U.S. headquarters and is a subsidiary of Soitec.

The parent corporation is headquartered in France with facilities in 18 countries and specializes in concentrating photovoltaic solar systems.

The new plant is a 1.5MWac Newberry Solar 1 project in San Bernardino County, Calif., and the power generated by Newberry Solar 1 will be sold to Southern California Edison under a 20-year power purchase agreement, says Soitec.

The plant will ultimately provide about 500 homes with energy while offsetting the emission of nearly 2,300 tons of carbon dioxide each year. The company says the system is also about as twice as efficient as conventional photovoltaic panels at a rate of 30 percent.

“This announcement represents a major milestone for Soitec in establishing its newest generation of CPV technology and a critical step in our ambitious deployment plans in the region,” said Gaetan Borgers, executive VP of Soitec’s Solar Energy Division.

“With a current production capacity of 280MWp and a worldwide pipeline of solar power plant projects totaling hundreds of megawatts, we’re very happy to show that our new product is now shipping and can be installed and operational in a very short timeframe,” he said.

Soitec says it's on track to become the third largest solar module manufacturer in the United States later this year.

Check out www.soitec.com for more information.