Renewable Energy Company To Build 200MW Arizona Solar Power Plant

Project to create 2,000 construction jobs, 100 permanent jobs

(Phoenix, AZ) – Albiasa Corporation, subsidiary of Spanish based Albiasa Solar, has chosen Arizona as the new location for the renewable energy firm's development headquarters and has selected a site near Kingman as the future location of its 200 megawatt (MW) concentrating solar power (CSP) plant.

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Assisted by the Arizona Department of Commerce, Albiasa's projects will create up to 2,000 construction jobs and more than 100 permanent jobs for Arizonans. The company recently opened a sales, marketing, and engineering office in Phoenix to serve as its Arizona headquarters.

"The arrival of Albiasa Corporation is yet another big step toward establishing Arizona as a leader in the sustainable industries sector, creating stable jobs that will help diversify our state's economy," said Governor Jan Brewer. "We are pleased to welcome Albiasa to Arizona, and commend the company for choosing our great state as the site for its solar plant."

The Albiasa project uses parabolic CSP technology similar to that at the SEGS I-IV power plants in the California Mojave Desert. These plants have reliably operated since the 1980s using the sun to generate electricity via parabolic collectors.

"Arizona is a natural location for our first major US project due to the solar and transmission resources," said Jesse Tippett, Albiasa Corporation's U.S. operations director. "We look forward to doing business here, and thank the Department of Commerce and business attraction manager Verily Keenan and Mohave County for all they have done to make us welcome."

Albiasa Solar has worked for years in Spain to improve the parabolic trough technology, making overall operation and cost of CSP more efficient. The Albiasa trough collector has been assessed as the most efficient parabolic trough system in the world.

"The Albiasa Kingman project involves over $1 billion capital investment and will generate annually, with molten salt thermal storage, more than 665,000 MWh of renewable solar energy when completed in 2013," said Albert Fong, Albiasa Corporation's Chief Project Engineer.

"We are excited to welcome Albiasa Corporation to Mohave County," said Gary Watson, District I Mohave County Supervisor. "This project will provide excellent jobs and substantial capital investment for our region of the state, and we anticipate Albiasa's presence will better enable us to attract additional renewable energy projects and allied operations."

Source: Arizona Commerce Dept.