May 22--Arizona Public Service, Starwood Energy Group Global and Lockheed Martin announced plans Friday to build one of the world's largest solar plants in the Harquahala Valley about 75 miles west of Phoenix.

The 290-megawatt plant will produce enough electricity to power more than 73,000 homes when it is completed in 2013, the developers said, Called Starwood Solar I, the plant will be financed and owned by an affiliate of Starwood Energy and built and operated by Lockheed Martin. APS has agreed to take all of the electricity generated at the plant for distribution to its customers.

The plant will include 3,500 parabolic mirrors that will focus the sun's heat onto tubes containing a heat-transfer fluid. The hot fluid will convert water into steam that will turn the plant's turbines to generate electricity.

The Starwood plant is the second major solar project spurred by APS. In February 2008 the company signed an agreement with Abengoa Solar of Spain to purchase power from a 280-megawatt plant the Spanish company plans to build by 2011 at Gila Bend. But Abengoa has had trouble lining up financing for that project, and construction has not yet started.

APS is required by the Arizona Corporation Commission to obtain 15 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2025. The utility said it will be ahead of schedule to meet that requirement if Solana and Starwood are built.

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