Solar thermal project developer BrightSource Energy has placed the top bid for Palen, a 500MW solar thermal plant, at a Delaware auction of property of Solar Trust of America, which went bankrupt in April this year. The as-yet unbuilt solar thermal plant is said to have been bought by BrightSource for an unconfirmed amount of up to US$30 million.
On June 15, the court voiced its approval of BrightSource as a stalking-horse bidder – a setter of a bid benchmark below which other bids are not accepted – for the 500MW plant, and although the final bid amount was not confirmed, Bloomberg’s report on the news claims that the agreed price could well be in the region of US$30 million.
The sale will be subject to an approval hearing process on June 27.
Palen is one of three large-scale plants that will be sold off following Solar Trust’s bankruptcy proceedings. The other two projects up for sale are the 1GW Blythe project in Riverside County, California, which is fully permitted and has grid interconnection rights, and a 500MW plant in Amargosa Valley, Nevada that is still in the planning stage.
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