[CPEO-BIF] "Chevron to build solar plant at NM tailings site"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

[This sounds like a good place to generate energy, as long as steps are 
taken to prevent the spread of toxic contaminants. Does anyone know if 
that's the case? - LS]

Chevron to build solar plant at NM tailings site

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN
Associated Press
February 23, 2010

SANTA FE, N.M. - Chevron Mining Inc., a subsidiary of oil giant Chevron 
Corp., announced plans Tuesday to build what company and state officials 
say will be the largest concentrating solar photovoltaic power plant in 
the nation at a tailings site in northern New Mexico.

Chevron Mining Inc. will build the 1-megawatt demonstration plant on 20 
acres of the company's molybdenum mine near the village of Questa. 
Construction will begin in the spring and the plant should be completed 
by the end of the year.

Unlike a concentrating solar thermal plant, the Questa installation will 
use lenses to focus sunlight onto three-layer solar cells. The 
technology is anticipated to be twice as efficient as traditional solar 
panels and it would use less photovoltaic material, company officials said.

...

The plant also will benefit Questa, where mining operations have long 
been the economic backbone of the community as well as an environmental 
liability. Activists have been critical of the mine and its tailings 
pile. As part of the solar project, an evaluation of soils at various 
depths will be done for closure of the tailings facility at the end of 
mining operations.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_14456886?nclick_check=1

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org



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