|
|||||
  |
Teanaway Solar to Build Worlds Largest PV Power Plant in WA State
The company Teanaway Solar Reserve is waiting for approval from Kittitas County to build the 75 megawatt plant, consisting of 400,000 PV panels. This plant will produce enough energy for 45,000 homes. Teanaway Solar has leased 400 acres of previous logged forest that is hidden from view by other existing forest. Howard Trott a former manager for telecom billionaire Craig McCaw is the heading up the privately held company. He expects the plant to be operational by 2011 if a timely approval is given from Kittitas County. The project is estimated to cost $100 million. The construction of the plant will provide hundreds of jobs for the local economy in addition to plans for building a facility on-sight to manufacture the solar panels. Cle Elum is in a banana belt of sunshine receiving 300 days of sun a year. Not to mention that the longitude of the site is in a very solar friendly location. Germany which lies along a similar longitude as Washington State has the largest ratio of installed PV systems in the world producing over 3,380 megawatts and is the largest manufacturer of photovoltaic solar panels recently edging out Japan. Teanaway Solar Reserve will tap into the federal investment tax credit and state tax breaks. Without these incentives it would not be a financially viable opportunity considering Washington State gets much of it power from cheap Hydro sources. Washington State’s clean-energy Initiative 937, requires the state’s largest utilities to get 15 percent of their electricity from non-hydro renewable sources by 2020. The Cle Elum plants claim as the largest solar plant may only last a few years considering the plant that China is proposing to build in the next 5 years will produce 100 megawatts. China is also likely to catch and surpass Germany as the top producer of solar panels…if they haven’t already. This is a great project for Washington State and the nation. Hopefully this will spur similar projects creating jobs and clean renewable energy. There is no reason that the United States should not or could not be the leader in solar production and installed PV systems. 5 comments to Teanaway Solar to Build Worlds Largest PV Power Plant in WA State |
||||
|
Copyright © 2010 TheGreenNW - All Rights Reserved |
|||||
Today I walked past a newspaper stand and on the front page of the 
I am so glad that Washington State is progessing with the renewable energy. When people think of WA state I don’t think sunshine comes to mind. There is a lot of Washington state well suited for solar and wind as well as wave energy. Keep us posted on the progress of this plant.
Mr. Petersen, this is a great article you wrote about Teanaway Solar. What is so encouraging is the fact that they can put this together in just a couple of years. Let the sun shine.
Shane Petersen, it’s me again. If they can build a solar enery plant that can provide electricity for 45,000 homes at a cost of $100,000,000 that equates to just the infrastructure cost of $2,222 per home. What a deal that would be for the residential customers.
Rather interesting. Has few times re-read for this purpose to remember. Thanks for interesting article. Waiting for trackback
Pete its a great deal for everyone except the oil companies. This is the future and thankfully our government has finally put the right incentives and tax credits in place that make this a reality for everyday people and communities.