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AES Announces Construction Complete on 1,000-MW, Solar-Plus-Storage Project in California

LCG, June 11, 2025--The AES Corporation (AES) announced today that it has completed construction of the 1,000 MW Bellefield 1 project, which is under a 15-year contract with Amazon. Bellefield is a two-phase project, with each phase including 500 MW of solar plus 500 MW of a four-hour, battery energy storage system (BESS). When Phase II is completed in 2026, the total installed capacity will be 2,000 MW, and AES expects the total project will be the largest solar-plus-storage facility in the United States.

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Duke Energy Proposes to Build 1,400-MW Natural Gas-Fired Power Plant in South Carolina

LCG, June 9, 2025--Duke Energy announced today its intent to submit an application to the Public Service Commission of South Carolina (PSCSC) for approval to build a new natural gas combined-cycle generating facility with hydrogen capability in Anderson County, South Carolina. The company plans to submit the construction application to the PSCSC later this year. If approved, it expects construction would commence in summer 2027, with operations beginning by early 2031.

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Industry News

Interior Department Approves 1,000 MW Solar Project in the Mojave Desert

LCG, October 27, 2010--The U.S. Interior Department on Monday approved The Blythe Solar Power Project, a mammoth $6 billion facility with an electric generating capacity of 3,000 MW. The Interior Department will provide a right-of-way grant for over 7,000 acres of public lands in the Mojave Desert near Blythe, California for 30 years to the developer, Solar Mellennium.

Four solar-thermal power plants are planned at the Blythe location, and the combined capacity will be nearly 1,000 MW. With approval from the Interior Department, construction is scheduled to start for the first two plants by the end of 2010, the deadline for qualifying for the U.S. Treasury Department grant, which equates to 30 percent of the project's cost. The first plant is scheduled to be connected to the grid as early as 2013.

The facility will employ a parabolic trough system that uses mirrors to focus solar energy onto collector tubes, with the hot fluid used in a boiler to generate steam, which is in turn used to drive a steam turbine to generate power.

Solar Millennium has power purchase agreements with Southern California Edison (SCE) for the first two plants that were approved by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) last July.

Solar Millennium envisions an equity ratio of 20 to 30 percent and a debt ratio of 70 to 80 percent for the first two plants and states it has sufficient resources for financing the first construction measures.

With the Treasury Grant requiring projects to start construction by the end of this year, the Interior Department recently approved a number of other large solar projects, including a 709-MW project in Imperial County and a 664-MW project east of Barstow.

The increase in variable output, non-dispatchable solar power creates a corresponding need for energy storage capacity. Last month, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger approved Assembly Bill 2514, which is designed to set targets for electric utilities to procure viable and cost-effective energy storage systems.

The new law requires the CPUC to initiate a proceeding to determine appropriate targets for each load-serving entity to procure energy storage systems by March 1, 2012, and to adopt such targets by October 1, 2013.

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