Media reports cite the reasons as being financial troubles faced by its parent company and a decision by Southern California Edison to cancel its agreement to buy power from the project.
Contrary to Tesseras initial plans to develop the project using solar thermal technology, K Road Power Holdings, LLCs subsidiary, K Road Sun, has said it will employ photovoltaic technology for 750 MWs of the project: the remaining 100 MWs will use solar thermal.
While 100 MWs of Phase 2 will be reserved for new generations of SES SunCatcher technology, K Roads Calico Solar Project will convert the first 750 MWs to widely tested and accepted photovoltaic technology, insuring the projects immediate financeability, further reducing environmental impacts, and providing the lowest cost solar production to help meet Californias renewable portfolio standard, explained William Kriegel, K Roads founder and chief executive officer.
According to a statement issued by Tessera, the transaction secures the continued development of Calico Solar, job creation when the project enters construction, and the generation of solar energy when the plant begins operations. It added that key Tessera staff working on the project are transitioning to K Road.
K Road Sun added that total capital investment is estimated to be USD$3 billion. Once in operation, it said that the project will provide enough energy to meet the annual demand of up to 350,000 California households.
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