Albiasa Solar to build a 200 MW Concentrating Solar Power plant in Arizona

Albiasa Corporation has chosen Arizona as the new location for the renewable energy firm’s development headquarters and has selected a site near Kingman as the future location of its 200 megawatt (MW) concentrating solar power (CSP) plant. Assisted by the Arizona Department of Commerce, Albiasa’s projects are expected to create up to 2,000 construction jobs and more than 100 permanent jobs. The company recently opened a sales, marketing, and engineering office in Phoenix to serve as its Arizona headquarters. 

Albiasa, a Spanish company with operations in the U.S., has been in business since 1974 but began developing technology for concentrated solar power starting in 2004. The company has several photovoltaic solar plants in Spain and one 50-megawatt concentrated solar power plant  under construction.

“The arrival of Albiasa Corporation is yet another big step toward establishing Arizona as a leader in the sustainable industries sector, creating stable jobs that will help diversify our state’s economy,” said Governor Jan Brewer. “We are pleased to welcome Albiasa to Arizona, and commend the company for choosing our great state as the site for its solar plant”.

“Arizona is a natural location for our first major US project due to the solar and transmission resources,” said Jesse Tippett, Albiasa Corporation’s U.S. operations director. A good regulatory climate was also mentioned as a factor in the election of Arizona for this project.  ”We look forward to doing business here, and thank the Department of Commerce and business attraction manager Verily Keenan and Mohave County for all they have done to make us welcome.”

Albiasa Solar has worked for years in Spain to improve the parabolic trough technology, making overall operation and cost of CSP more efficient.  The Albiasa trough collector has been assessed as the most efficient parabolic trough system in the world.

“The Albiasa Kingman project involves over $1 billion capital investment and will generate annually, with molten salt thermal storage, more than 665,000 MWh of renewable solar energy when completed in 2013,” said Albert Fong, Albiasa Corporation’s Chief Project Engineer. 

The state likely will see more such projects, as the Albiasa deal is one of several that Department of Commerce officials are working on, said Kent Ennis, interim director at the department. “We hope to soon announce several projects in the state,” he said. 

The plant is the second concentrated solar power facility to choose Arizona. Abengoa Solar announced last year it is building a 280-megawatt solar plant near Gila Bend that would sell power to Arizona Public Service.

Although the plant will be located in the state, power may go elsewhere. Tippett said Albiasa is negotiating with utilities in Arizona and elsewhere about buying the power.

Explore posts in the same categories: Concentrating Solar Power (CSP), Renewable energy

Tags: albiasa solar, arizona solar plants, csp plants, Governor Jan Brewer, kingman solar plant

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