AGUA PRIETA, Mexico, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- The World Bank will provide $49.35 million to build a solar thermal power plant in the municipality of Agua Prieta, Mexico, just across the Arizona border.
"The Solar Thermal Project Agua Prieta II seeks to demonstrate the benefits of integrating a solar field with a large conventional thermal facility, contribute to reducing the long-term costs of the technology, and reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. The carbon emissions reduction is estimated in 391,270 tons of carbon dioxide over the 25-year economic life of the plant," the World Bank said in a statement released late last week.
Mexico is No. 9 on the list of top greenhouse gas emitting countries, the World Bank said.
"Global warming has been identified as a significant poverty and strategic issue, especially in developing countries," Gabriela Elizondo Azuela, the World Bank project task manager, said via the statement.
The World Bank grant funds only the first phase of the project, the design and construction of a 31 megawatt peak solar thermal field. The second phase of the project will be to build a 480 megawatt thermal power plant, the statement said.
Solar thermal works by collecting sunlight and using it to heat a liquid, usually an oil. The liquid is used to heat water and create steam, which powers turbines in the power plant. Most solar thermal plants use a combination of solar thermal energy and fossil fuels or natural gas, because solar thermal energy is difficult to store overnight and during extended cloudy periods.
