America's Largest Solar Power Plant Completed in Nevada

Arizona firm First Solar has completed America’s largest solar photovoltaic plant, a 48-megawatt facility in Boulder City, Nevada.

The company supplied solar panels as well as engineering, procurement and construction services for the Copper Mountain Solar facility on behalf of energy company Sempra Generation, a sister company of the California utility San Diego Gas & Electric.

The facility located on a 380-acre site 40 miles southeast of Las Vegas can generate enough renewable energy to supply 14,000 homes with electricity.

Construction began in January, with about 350 workers installing about 775,000 photovoltaic panels.

Jeffrey W. Martin, president and chief executive officer of San Diego-based Sempra Generation, said the Copper Mountain Solar facility was part of his company’s plan to develop more than 1,000MW of solar capacity in Arizona, California and Nevada.

Mr Martin said: “Completing Copper Mountain Solar is a major accomplishment. It demonstrates that large-scale solar can be developed at a rapid pace to help this country meet its clean energy needs, and further solidifies our position as one of the leading solar developers in the US.”


Power from the Copper Mountain Solar facility, as well as Sempra’s adjacent 10MW El Dorado Solar plant, is being sold to Pacific Gas and Electric under separate 20-year power purchase agreements.

The facilities will help the Californian utility meet state requirements to supply 20% of its energy from renewable sources by the end of 2010 and 33% by 2020.

Sempra said it is expecting to begin construction next year on the first phase of a 600MW solar project in Arizona, and has recently received consent to build a 200MW solar farm in Kern County, California.

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