I wrote this story for Reuters, where it first appeared on November 30, 2010.
A subsidiary of NRG Energy on Tuesday said it will invest up to $450 million in a 250-megawatt photovoltaic power plant to be built by Silicon Valley’s SunPower on the central California coast.
The New Jersey-based power provider, which operates a fleet of fossil fuel and nuclear plants, has emerged as significant investor in solar projects.
In October, NRG agreed to invest $300 million in BrightSource Energy’s 370-megawatt Ivanpah solar thermal power plant now under construction in the Mojave Desert in Southern California. The company has also struck a partnership with eSolar, a Pasadena, Calif., startup, to build solar power plants in the desert Southwest. And NRG owns a 20-megawatt photovoltaic farm in Blythe, Calif., and has other solar projects under development in Arizona, California and New Mexico.
In the deal with SunPower, NRG Solar will take ownership of the California Valley Solar Ranch in San Luis Obispo County and responsibility for financing the project. SunPower said on Tuesday that it is seeking a federal loan guarantee to build the solar farm and has received a draft term sheet from the United States Department of Energy.
SunPower, a solar power plant developer and one of the U.S.’ largest manufacturers of photovoltaic modules, will build and operate the San Luis Obispo project. The company, based in San Jose, Calif., has a 25-year contract to sell the electricity generated by California Valley Solar Ranch to utility PG&E. Construction is set to begin next year and when the project is completed in 2013 it will produce enough electricity to power about 100,000 homes, according to the company.
You can read the rest of the story here.
Green Wombat 
NRG will soon have electric vehicle charging stations in Houston: http://www.energyinyourlife.com/article.php?t=100000159
Excellent post, I can only imagine how strenuous the building construction for a project of this magnitude is going to be. From what I have been reading environmentalists strongly appose projects like this because of their effect on the desert ecosystems. Projects like this significantly help out our environment, but it is unfortunate they must be done at the expense of native animals and plants. This is a very interesting topic, and it is definitely something I want to learn more about. I usually go to McGraw Hill’s California Construction site when I want to find out more on issues like this one. It has a ton of information on construction news happening around California. While I occasionally work with McGraw Hill, they have been a favorite construction resource of mine long before we started working together. If you are like me, and enjoy staying current on construction news and information in California, check out McGraw Hill.