Solar Power Plant

PowerLight to run $75M GE solar plant in Portugal

East Bay Business Times

PowerLight Corp. said Thursday that it designed and will operate and maintain the world's largest solar photovoltaic power plant, to be built in Portugal. GE Financial Services, based in Stamford, Conn., will pay for and own the $75 million solar power project, which will have 52,000 photovoltaic modules generating 11 megawatts. It will produce enough energy to power 8,000 homes. Fossil fuel generation of this scope would create more than 30,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions, the company said. Catavento Lda, a Portuguese firm based in Lisbon, developed the project and will manage it.

Deliveries of construction materials to the site in Serpa, Portugal, have already begun, and work is set to start in May. The plant, which will feature Berkeley-based PowerLight's PowerTracker system, could be up and running by January 2007. Tom Dinwoodie, CEO of PowerLight, called the project a "solar industry milestone."