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Largest solar project in US grabs attention from the green world

The largest solar project in US, Copper Mountain Solar 1, features around a million thin film solar panels that cover 450 acres. First called the El Dorado Energy Solar, the project was delivered by Sempra U.S. Gas & Power. The first installation was made in 2008; it had 1,67,000 panels with a capacity of producing 10 megawatts. By the end of 2010, another 775,000 more panels had been installed, with a collective capacity of producing 58 megawatt of power.

Solar Project

Besides being the largest solar plant of US, there are other features of this plant that make it an important renewable energy projects. We all know that the desert ecology is essential for its sustenance and if fresh land will be used for a large scale solar project, species of animals peculiar to the desert will be endangered. Besides this, once the desert land is dug up it is hard to regenerate it back. Therefore, to deal with all such issues Sempra decided to use messed up desert land.

The Mountain Solar 1 has been located close to Boulder City, Nevada. This was deliberately done as the Boulder city forms a major part of the infrastructure of this project and features a massive renewable energy project, the Hoover Dam. All land used for the projects is private land, but that does mean the government extended no help, it has been upbeat about supporting as well as promoting the project. State owned California utility Pacific Gas & Electric signed an agreement to buy power from Copper Mountain 1 for 20 years.

Sempra is now working on the next iteration of the project, which will be called, The Mountain Solar 2. This will add some 150 megawatts to the current capacity. This project is most likely to be followed by another project, Copper Mountain Solar North that is expected to add up to 220 megawatts.

Via: Good

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