The project pairs the nation’s largest municipal utility with the largest and most experienced U.S. manufacturer of crystalline solar power technology. LADWP will install, own and operate the system while SolarWorld will supply complete system engineering and high-performance solar panels and procure balance-of-system components, including advanced SMA America inverters to convert power from the system to 10 MW AC power for transmission to Los Angeles.

Work on the project commenced this month at the LADWP’s existing high-desert Adelanto Switching and Convertor Station, after the Board of Water and Power Commissioners approved the project agreement in December 2010. Preliminary designs for the project have been delivered, soil testing has concluded and detailed engineering at Adelanto is now underway.

Aside from supplying 46,322 250-watt SolarWorld Sunmodules, the company will tap project engineering expertise of SolarWorld specialists in the company’s Camarillo operations, which have pioneered solar technology since 1975.

The Adelanto project is expected to produce 22,400 megawatt-hours (Mwh) during its first year and 515,700 Mwh over a 25-year period. The system will feature several innovative design elements, including interconnection into a critical bulk-grid substation as well as a more efficient, leading-edge 1,000-volt solar power system. Further, the system will incorporate SolarWorld Sunfix ground-mount systems featuring flexible aluminum structures to minimize site-preparation costs.

“The technical features of Adelanto are advanced, and the design requirements are more sophisticated than typical systems of this size,” said Raju Yenamandra, U.S. vice president of sales and a 30-year veteran of SolarWorld’s plant in Camarillo. “But having built the world’s first 1 MW system in California in 1981 and adapted many system types since then, we look forward to once again demonstrating our project-engineering ingenuity.”

The Adelanto solar array will be built on a 42-acre site about 65 miles north of Los Angeles in the town of Adelanto, Calif. The station there serves as the southern terminus of LADWP’s Southern Transmission System, which links Southern California with renewable energy wind farms and the existing Intermountain Power Project in Utah.

The Adelanto project is one of three LADWP renewable energy projects to be financed by federal Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds. The bonds, offered through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, save LADWP customers money by subsidizing loan interest costs.

About the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (www.ladwp.com)
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the nation’s largest municipal utility, provides reliable, low-cost water and power services to Los Angeles residents and businesses in an environmentally responsible manner. LADWP serves about 1.4 million electric customers and 680,000 water customers in Los Angeles. For more information, please visit www.ladwp.com. For the latest news about LADWP, please visit www.ladwpnews.com.

About SolarWorld (www.SolarWorld-USA.com)
The SolarWorld  group (ISIN: DE0005108401) is a worldwide leader in offering brand-name, high-quality, crystalline solar-power technology. Its strength is its fully integrated solar production. From silicon as the raw material through wafers, cells and modules all the way to turn-key solar systems of all sizes, the group combines all stages of the solar value chain. The central business activity is selling quality modules into the installation and distribution trades and crystalline wafers to the international solar cell industry. Group headquarters are located in Bonn, Germany. The group’s largest production facilities operate in Freiberg, Germany, and Hillsboro, Ore. Sustainability is the basis of the group strategy. Under the name Solar2World, the group supports care projects using off-grid solar-power solutions in developing countries, exemplifying sustainable economic development. Worldwide, SolarWorld employs about 3,300 people. SolarWorld AG has been quoted on the stock exchange since 1999 and today is listed on, among others, the TecDAX, ÖkoDAX, Dow Jones STOXX 600 as well as in the sustainability indices DAXglobal Alternative Energy and NAI.

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Media contacts:

Brooks Baker
LADWP Public Affairs
brooks.baker@ladwp.com

Ben Santarris
SolarWorld Industries America Inc.
ben.santarris@solarworld-usa.com