Dive Brief:
- Spain's Abengoa announced Liberty Interactive Corp., an Internet and video company, will invest $300 million in the Solana concentrating solar project under construction near Gila Bend, Arizona.
- The 280-megawatt project is the largest in the world using solar parabolic trough design. It would also be the biggest plant in the US to use thermal energy storage, so that its power can be dispatchable.
- Power will be sold to Arizona Public Service beginning at the end of this year.
Dive Insight:
The Solana project is one instance where federal support for clean energy technology did not go to waste. Abengoa received a $1.45 billion loan guarantee from the Department of Energy.
