(Crosspost) World's biggest solar farm planned for New Mexico

[jpak]

http://today.reuters.com/misc/PrinterFriendlyPopup.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=uri:2006-04-26T221735Z_01_N26260444_RTRIDST_0_UTILITIES-SOLAR-NEWMEXICO.XML

LOS ANGELES, April 26 (Reuters) - Two start-up companies and New Mexico plan a $1.6 billion solar power farm that would be 30 times the size of the world's biggest one now, with enough power for 240,000 homes.

They also plan a factory to make photovoltaic panels for the farm, near the Mexican border in New Mexico, developers said on Wednesday.

Once the panels are spread out over 3,200 acres near Deming, New Mexico, they will be able to generate about 300 megawatts of electricity while the sun shines, said lead developer Ed Balch of New Solar Ventures, a private company.

<snip>

It could take up to five years to have the full 300 megawatts on line and connected to the grid, Balch said. But the farm could connect to grid sooner. It will take about 18 months to build the factory and construction on the solar farm is to start in about two years Balch said.

<more>

[nmvisitor]

1. I'd love to see it happen, but.....

I'm a life long resident of New Mexico, and this would be a very cool thing for us. But I'm afraid it's probably just a trial balloon tossed up to see if they can generate any funding. Maybe if the price of oil gets high enough, some of these wind and solar power generation ideas will get off the ground. Here's hoping.........

[NNadir]

2. Is this new "world's largest" solar mega"watts" or physicist watts?

If it's physicist watts, it's 1.6 billion for a 100 MW (continuous, physicist watts) plant.