WASHINGTON, June 15 (UPI) -- Loan guarantees for solar power projects in California would help double the concentrating solar power capacity in the United States, the government said.
The U.S. Energy Department announced it was offering a conditional loan guarantee of $1.2 billion for the Mojave Solar Project and another $681 million to support the Genesis Solar Project, each with a capacity of 250 megawatts.
The two plants combined would double the current installed concentrating solar power, the department said.
Mojave will be the first utility-scale development of technology the Energy Department said vastly improves on the solar technology installed in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s. Mojave's system operates without a back-up system using fossil fuels, the department added.
Mojave would generate enough electricity to meet the yearly demands of more than 53,000 homes while Genesis would generate enough power for 48,000 homes. Combined, the two plants would avoid more than 670,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year.
"These projects represent an important step in the development of solar as an affordable, clean energy resource in this country," U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement.
Utility companies in California are required to use renewable energy to produce 20 percent of the electricity by 2010 and 33 percent by 2020.
