NRG Doubles Down on Solar

[jpak]

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2010/10/30/nrg-doubles-down-on-solar.aspx

NRG Energy (NYSE: NRG) is continuing its move into solar energy in a big way. This week, the company announced a $300 million equity investment in the 392 MW Ivanpah Solar Project being built by BrightSource Energy.

The project already received a $1.375 billion conditional commitment for a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy, and ground has been broken. Power from the plant will be purchased by PG&E (NYSE: PCG) and Southern California Edison, a subsidiary of Edison International (NYSE: EIX).

A few months ago, we covered NRG's big move into clean energy with a 1,150 MW solar pipeline and a growing list of wind farms. This addition only solidifies NRG's commitment to making the company "greener" as a way to hedge against future risks and get a nice return on the way.

So far, the mammoth-sized projects in the U.S. are being built with concentrated solar, a technology that doesn't work on a small scale and can provide more consistent power than PV. But PV is trying to get in the game and is building larger projects all the time. SunPower (Nasdaq: SPWRA), who also develops plants, is working on a 44 MW project in Italy, and First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR) recently finished the largest PV plant in the world, at 80 MW. These may be chump change compared to Solar Millennium's 1 GW Blythe project, but give it time.

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