Air Force selects Fotowatio to develop up to 500 MW in California March, 2010: The United States Air Force and Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV) in January signed an agreement to lease 3,288 acres of land at Edwards Air Force Base in southern California for the development of up to 500 MW of solar capacity over the next decade. © Nellis Air Force Base  President Barack Obama on a visit to Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, which includes a 14 MW PV plant owned and operated by Fotowatio. In January, the Air Force selected the company to develop up to 500 MW at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Under the so-called Enhanced-Use Lease agreement, San Francisco, California-based FRV has exclusive access to the development site for conducting necessary environmental and transmission studies. However, an actual lease will not be signed until after the studies and permitting are completed. FVR – the US project-development arm of Spanish company Fotowatio and one-third owned by GE Energy Financial Services – also doesn't have contracts with utility customers for the power yet. According to Mark McLanahan, senior VP at FVR, the company will seek contracts with California utilities required to purchase renewable power under the state's Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). The project will likely be developed in stages, with construction targeted for 2013. »This is a long-term program in the sense that they give you a bland slate to work with, a piece of land,« McLanahan told PHOTON International. The company intends to use PV technology at the site, said McLanahan. »Our intent is PV, but we are open to concentrating solar power (CSP),« he added. Fotowatio is currently developing two 50 MW CSP plants in Spain, both using parabolic troughs. To date, nearly all of the 130 MW of projects that Fotowatio owns and operates, primarily in Spain and the US, use crystalline modules. Among those is a 14 MW project that FRV – then a subsidiary of Municipal Mortgage & Equity – completed at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada in 2007. FRV is the second subsidiary of a Spanish company selected to develop solar projects on US military land in the last half year. In late July, the US Army Corps of Engineers tapped Nevada, US-based Acciona Solar Power, the US subsidiary of the Spanish engineering firm, to build up to 1,000 MW of PV and CSP at Fort Irwin, also in southern California (see PI 9/2009, p. 17) Garrett Hering © PHOTON International, March 2010 Duplicate only with allowance of PHOTON Europe GmbH, Aachen, Germany  back