Abengoa revives 500-MW Palen CSP plan

Nov 4, 2014 - Spanish group Abengoa (MCE:ABG) said today it will buy BrightSource Energy Inc’s stake in their joint 500-MW Palen concentrating solar power (CSP) project in California and will change a bit its configuration.

Details of the acquisition deal were not revealed.

The news comes after the partners in September withdrew the application for the huge project on projections that it would not be completed before end-2016 when the federal government’s solar investment tax credit (ITC) drops from 30% to 10%.

As a sole owner of the project in Riverside County, Abengoa will incorporate its molten salt tower technology in the USD-2-billion (EUR 1.6bn) scheme, thus adding thermal energy storage capacity. The Spanish firm will also follow the California Energy Commission’s (CEC’s) recommendation to build a single tower, instead of two 250-MW plants.

The Palen project was initially a consented parabolic-trough scheme, owned by US firm Solar Millenium. BrightSource acquired it after the Millenium went bankrupt and in December 2012 filed an amendment to the existing approval to convert the plan to solar power tower technology. Abengoa joined later as project partner. In September 2014, CEC granted preliminary approval for the scheme’s first 250-MW solar tower.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.800)

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