The Spanish-owned Albiasa Solar company plans to start building a 200-megawatt power plant south of Kingman next year, according to a report in the Kingman Daily Miner.
The paper reports that the $1 billion project would begin producing power in 2013, using the Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) process where curved mirrors focus sunlight to heat tubes filled with oil. The hot oil turns water into steam that turns turbines, generating electricity. [right, Albiasa's parabolic trough solar concentrator]
The plant spokesman said it will use about 1/4 the amount of water that raising cotton in the same area would take, but didn't say how much water that is.