Southern California Edisonconspicuously absent from last week's bevy of applicants for smart grid stimulus funds, has forged a partnership with First Solar to buy electricity from two new thin-film photovoltaic plants slated to produce 550 megawatts for 170,000 homes.
The deal, still awaiting approval from California energy regulators, already names sites for the two plants -- one to produce 300 megawatts and the other 250 -- in San Bernadino and Riverside counties. The plants would break ground in 2012 and 2013, respectively, with estimated completion around 2015. No financial terms for the partnership have been disclosed, but the companies say more information will be available after the deal closes, and that the plants could represent as much as $1.3 billion in revenue for First Solar.
The news is significant due to the scale of the parties involved. Arizona-based First Solar is the leading photovoltaic company in the U.S., and one of the very few that actually reported positive financial results for the second quarter, bringing in $180.6 million in net income, up from $69.7 million the year before. Southern California Edison is one of the largest utilities in California and the top distributor of solar energy in the U.S. -- delivering 65 percent of the solar energy generated in the whole country to its customers, according to the Los Angeles Times.
SCE already has partnerships with Solar Millenium -- a German photovoltaic company -- and Oakland, Calif.-based BrightSource Energy. These deals and the newest one with First Solar are part of the utility's ongoing effort to meet state renewable energy mandates. These standards would require SCE to generate 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by next year. It was deriving about 16 percent of its energy from these sources as of last year.
SCE isn't the first California utility that First Solar has joined forces with. It is also teaming with PG&E to develop another 500-megawatt solar project in San Luis Obispo County.
SCE says it is now applying for about $60 million through the Department of Energy. The deadline for the second round is Aug. 26.