The 1,000-megawatt Blythe Solar Power Project in Blythe, Calif., got a big boost last week when the Department of Energy (DOE) awarded it with a $2.1 billion loan guarantee to support development of the first 484-megawatt phase of the project. The loan guarantee will help the company secure more financing to construct the first two 242-megawatt solar thermal trough generators at the Blythe site.

DOE Secretary Steven Chu and California Governor Jerry Brown (D) were on hand at the announcement of the loan guarantee.

“Solar Trust of America is extremely grateful to Secretary Chu the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office for helping make the Blythe Solar Power Project a reality and for ushering in a new era of utility-scale solar development,” Uwe Schmidt, Solar Trust CEO, said in a press release.

DOE has now issued more than $21 billion in loan guarantees to support 22 clean-energy projects across 14 states. It hasn’t had to make any payouts thus far. While not a loan, the loan guarantee reassures investors and potential investors that, should the project not succeed, they will be compensated for their investment.

“The loan guarantee really provides investors with kind of a backup level of confidence in the project and that they’ll see a return on investment,” said Solar Trust’s Andrea Elliott. “It’s certainly our plan going forward to have that confidence for our investors.”

Solar Trust will soon break ground on the project.

“We’re preparing a ground-breaking event in the next few months. We began the early stages of environmental compliance—that started last fall,” Elliot said. “We’re hoping to start more significant construction in early summer.”

The first two generators will use HelioTroughs, which reflect and concentrate sunlight on a tube filled with a mineral oil that flows through the tube. After being super-heated, the oil is used to convert water into steam to push a turbine. It will use an air-cooled condenser rather than a water cooled unit, which will decrease water use by nearly 90 percent.

Development of the first phase of the project is expected to create a total of 7,500 construction, operations and supply chain jobs in the U.S. and more than 1,000 direct construction jobs in Riverside County, Calif., according to Solar Trust.

“We’re anticipating construction for first two plants will take about three years,” Elliot said.

The plants could come online as soon as 2014, according to Elliot.

Solar Trust will sell the power generated by the units to Southern California Edison. The entire 1,000 megawatts could be online in about five years, she said.

Image courtesy of Solar Trust of America.