eSolar completes 5-MW power-tower solar plant as NRG waits in wings

Pasadena, Calif.-based eSolar has now commissioned the 5-megawatt Sierra SunTower facility in the California desert, heralding the solar thermal plant as the first to use power-tower technology in the United States.

The company built and financed the plant itself in less than a year, and eSolar plans to sell the electricity to utility Southern California Edison to power 4,000 homes (see SCE brings more solar thermal to California). Southern California Edison is a division of Edison International (NYSE:EIX).

See the power-tower plant here »

But although eSolar has plans for 465 MW in additional U.S. solar projects, eSolar won’t be the sole company taking credit at the next opening.

The credit crunch forced eSolar to find financing partners, and the solar thermal developer signed a $10 million agreement in February that gave Princeton, N.J.-based NRG Energy (NYSE: NRG) an equity stake, as well as development rights to three other projects and power-purchase agreements with utilities (see NRG Energy, eSolar sign 500 MW solar deal). The deal marked NRG's first foray in solar, adding to its portfolio of wind, biofuel and carbon capture projects (see BP, NRG start up Texas wind farm, NRG Energy testing GreenFuel's algae system in Louisiana and NRG, Powerspan to demo large scale carbon capture).

NRG previously said it planned to watch the design, construction and commissioning of the Sierra SunTower plant in order to give it a better idea of how to build the facilities. Next on the list are a 92-MW plant for El Paso Electric, a 92-MW plant for Northern California’s PG&E, and a 245-MW plant under a PPA with Southern California Edison. Additionally, eSolar signed a deal to license its technology to India's ACME Group for approximately 1 gigawatt of solar thermal capacity.

ESolar developed a modular, scalable solar thermal power technology that focuses thousands of mirrors on a single point to efficiently harvest the sun’s energy and reduce costs (see Cleantech Group picks winners and losers in concentrated solar thermal).

ESolar officials say the newly commissioned Sierra plant provides proof of the technology’s viability, something that could help NRG in the short term and eSolar when it resumes building its own power plants sometime in the future. The plan is similar to that of solar thermal startup Ausra, which also decided to focus on being a technology and equipment supplier instead of independent power producer in the short term (see Ausra shaves staff as it chases immediate revenue). Ausra opened its 5-MW solar thermal power in California in October (see Ausra opens U.S. solar-thermal plant).

Last year, eSolar raised a $130 million round from Idealab, Google.org and Oak Investment Partners (see Going modular with eSolar). 

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