The largest photovoltaic plant in the U.S. will soon be dwarfed by a neighboring PV plant. A South Korean company, POSCO, has joined with U.S.-based Sustainable Energy Capital Partners to (SECP) finance a 300 megawatt (MW) PV farm near Boulder City, Nev.

The valley recently became home to the U.S.’s largest PV plant, the 48 MW Copper Mountain Solar plant, which was completed by First Solar in less than a year. Already, this new planned project in the Eldorado Valley will make the Copper Mountain plant look like a comparative molehill. Land—2,200 acres—for the project was originally leased in July 2010 by Taihan Techren, a korean renewable energy company. That company sold its interest in the project to POSCO and SECP.

The project is still in the permitting phase, according to Rick Lewis, Managing Director of SECP.

“This is a long process, but we've begun the permitting process. 2011 will be a very busy year working thru the regulatory and permitting process,” he said. "We're still modeling completion in 2014."

According to Lewis, the first phase, a smaller power plant at the Boulder City airport, will begin in 2011.

“The city leaders want to be an example to America by not only providing the opportunity to supply renewable power to other areas of the South West, but also by working toward becoming a ‘green city’ themselves. The city leaders requested this installation as part of the land lease agreement so the power generated at this plant will directly benefit Boulder City,” he saidd. "Phase two is to build the 300 MW power plant."

SECP has projects in Europe, Asia and the U.S.

“International deals, as you can imagine, have some unique challenges, but we have been very fortunate,” Lewis said. “POSCO has been wonderful to work with on the Boulder City project.”

The company also has other projects in the works.

“We have a number of projects in different stages of development. One of these projects is located north of Palm Springs [Calif]. It's a 100 megawatt PV development,” he said. “We're in the middle of its first phase, a 20 MW plant."

He added that the company set up its first international office in Seoul for numerous reasons.

“Some of our partners at SECP have extensive experience working in Korea, so we built on those relationships and Korea has been a leader in renewable energy for quite some time."

The Las Vegas Sun reported that the land is under a 54-year lease, which is expected to bring in almost $200 million in revenue for the city over the plant’s lifetime.

Image courtesy of NREL.