American firm ESolar on Friday agreed to build solar power plants with a total capacity of 2,000 megawatts in China, the Los Angeles Times reported. The deal – one of the largest of its kind – will require ESolar to provide its technology and expertise to China Shandong Penglai Electric Power Equipment Manufacturing Co to build solar "power tower" plants over the next decade. Further details of the agreement have not been released, but ESolar will retain the intellectual property rights of its design and operation. This agreement comes four months after another American solar power company, First Solar, entered into an agreement to build a photovoltaic power plant on the same scale in China. ESolar’s power plants use a new technology to produce thermal energy: field of mirrors, called heliostats, heat a water-filled receiver on a tower. The resultant steam powers an electricity-generating turbine.
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