Austin may build huge solar array

Goal of 30% renewables by 2020

Wendy Natt, Feb 06, 09.

Austin Energy, the city of Austin’s electric utility, may enter into a deal with San Francisco-based Gemini Solar Development Co. to build the nation’s largest solar power facility outside of Austin, a move that would place the city closer to its goal of drawing 30 percent of its power from renewable energy sources by 2020, says an article in the Austin American-Statesman. If plans run according to schedule, the facility will be in operation by 2010.

The solar array would be built and owned by Gemini, with Austin Energy as their sole client, and would produce more than twice the energy generated by the nation’s current largest array at Nellis Airforce Base in Nevada. Solar power generated by the proposed plant would be used to provide Austin with energy during its peak hours of demand.

While energy from the solar plant is expected to be more costly, precise cost comparisons between solar and non-renewable energy sources are difficult to determine, and have not been provided yet by Austin Energy, according to the article. Energy company officials say that, in addition to the 51,000 tons of carbon per year that the solar array will remove from the city’s emmissons, the cost of the energy it produces will remain relatively stable, and will not be subject to the “volatile” price fluctuations of oil and natural gas.

(photo credit: Jeremy Levine Design)