California gets boost for solar power

WASHINGTON, April 12 (UPI) -- A $1.6 billion loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy supports a solar power plant in California that can power 85,000 homes, an official said.

The Department of Energy announced it finalized the loan guarantee to support three large-scale solar power plants in California.

"Through the loan program we are supporting some of the largest, most innovative clean energy projects in the world, and those investments are helping us to out-compete and out-innovate our global competitors to win the future," said U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

The $1.6 billion loan is the first solar power loan for the Department of Energy in California. The solar complex could produce as much as 392 megawatts of energy, enough to meet the electricity demands of more than 85,000 homes. The complex could avoid more than 640,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year, about the same as pulling more than 120,000 cars of the road.

Electricity from the solar complex will be sold to Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California Edison Co.,

"This loan guarantee will help create clean-energy jobs, increase our energy independence, protect our children from dangerous pollution and strengthen California's clean energy economy," said U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., in a statement.

The complex should be completed by 2013.