America is blessed with vast tracks of deserts – wide open spaces of soliltude – just waiting to serve the planet as host for solar power facilities of the future. Lockheed Martin’s new project in Arizona, called Starwood Solar 1, will be single, largest dispatchable solar power plant in the world. Dispatchable facilities store electricity for energy-on-demand.
The project is being developed by Starwood Energy Group Global and its affiliate Nautilus Solar Energy with construction by defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corporation.
Starwood has a contract to sell the power to the Arizona Public Service Co. starting in 2013 once construction is finished. Project cost is $2.7 billion. Developers envisage creating 7700 direct and indirect jobs.
