Big California solar energy push moves forward

California's long-awaited boom in solar power plant construction took a major step forward Wednesday when state regulators approved the first in a string of projects that will soon blanket thousands of acres of desert with mirrors harnessing the energy of the sun.

The California Energy Commission unanimously approved the Beacon Solar Energy Project, which a Florida company plans to build on the Mojave Desert's western edge. The plant will use troughs of curved mirrors to concentrate sunlight, heat fluid-filled tubes, generate steam, turn a turbine and produce electricity.

California hasn't issued a license for this kind of big "solar thermal" power plant in about 20 years. But in the coming months, the energy commission will vote on eight other, large-scale solar projects that the state needs to meet its renewable energy goals.

"I hope this is the first of many more large-scale renewable projects that this commission will permit," said Commissioner Jeffrey Byron. "This is exactly the kind of project that we like to see."

California law requires the state's investor-owned utilities to get 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by the end of this year, a target the utilities will almost certainly miss. In full sunlight, Beacon Solar will be able to generate as much as 250 megawatts of electricity. A megawatt is a snapshot figure, roughly equal to the amount of electricity used at any given moment by 750 homes.