US firm to build mega solar plant in China

A solar power plantUS energy firm First Solar will build the world's biggest solar power plant in China. The company has signed a MoU with the Chinese government to build a 2 gigawatt solar power plant in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, China.

The project, which is expected to provide enough power for three million homes, will be built over a multi-year period in various phases. Phase 1 will be a 30 megawatt demonstration project that will begin construction by June 1, 2010.

“This major commitment to solar power is a direct result of the progressive energy policies being adopted in China to create a sustainable, long-term market for solar and a low carbon future for China,” First Solar CEO Mike Ahearn said at the signing ceremony. “The project represents an encouraging step forward toward the mass-scale deployment of solar power worldwide to help mitigate climate change concerns.”
The project will operate under a feed-in-tariff which will guarantee the pricing of electricity produced by the power plant over a long-term period.

“The Chinese feed-in tariff will be critical to this project,” Ahearn said. “This type of forward-looking government policy is necessary to create a strong solar market and facilitate the construction of a project of this size, which in turn continues to drive the cost of solar electricity closer to ‘grid parity’, where it is competitive with traditional energy sources.”

“We are very pleased to be partnering with one of the solar industry’s global technology leaders in a project of such significance to Ordos’s low carbon future,” said Cao Zhichen, vice mayor of Ordos Municipal Government. “Discussions with First Solar about building a factory in China demonstrate to investors in China that they can confidently invest in the most advanced technologies available.”