PIC to Operate World’s First Full Scale Molten Salt Solar Power Tower

ATLANTA (January 12, 2012) – PIC Group, Inc. is pleased to announce that it has entered into a service agreement with Tonopah Solar Energy LLC, an affiliate of SolarReserve, LLC, to operate and maintain the 110 megawatt Crescent Dunes Solar Energy project currently under construction near Tonopah, Nevada.

PIC will provide full care, custody and control O&M services to the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Plant. The agreement will begin with mobilization to the site in 2012, with Commercial Operation expected to begin in early 2014. Once completed, the Crescent Dunes facility will supply approximately 480,000 megawatt-hours annually to NV Energy through a 25-year power purchase agreement.

The Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Plant will utilize advanced molten-salt solar power tower technology with integrated energy storage to generate clean, reliable and dispatchable solar power on demand – day or night. The Crescent Dunes plant is the first commercial application of this type of technology in the US, and will be the largest facility of its kind in the world.

“Although the molten salt portion of the facility was operated on a demonstration scale in the late 1990’s, the Crescent Dunes project is an important new development in commercial solar-thermal technology here in the US.  PIC will leverage its proven O&M programs and procedures from its extensive solar and steam turbine operations to implement the same culture and programs at Tonopah. Through the use of our structured processes, the PIC team will be well prepared to carry out full operation of this innovative and revolutionary power source,” said Joe Bono, PIC’s Director of Business Development for O&M Services.

PIC Group, Inc., headquartered in Marietta, Georgia and established in 1988, is a global provider of service solutions to the power generation industry.  PIC’s comprehensive portfolio of services supports all aspects of power project development including start-up and commissioning, installation, operations and maintenance, outage, documentation and training, and project support.  PIC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Marubeni Group, a publicly listed company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan with revenues of $41.1 billion during 2010.

SolarReserve, LLC, headquartered in Santa Monica, California, is a solar energy project development company developing large-scale solar energy projects worldwide. It holds exclusive license to the molten salt, solar power tower technology developed by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation. Since its formation in late 2007, SolarReserve’s team of power project professionals have assembled a concentrated solar power development portfolio or more than 25 projects featuring its licensed solar power technology with potential output of more than 3,000 megawatts in the U.S. and Europe; with early stage activities in other international markets including the Middle East, North and South Africa, Australia, China, India and Latin America. 

Media Contact:
Jessica Tate
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