By Mark Waite

Solar Millennium, the company building two, 250-megawatt concentrated solar power plants in Amargosa Valley, has been acquired by Solarhybrid AG.

Both companies issued a press release Tuesday. Solar Millennium officials had no comment until the deal is finalized under a mutual non-disclosure agreement between the companies.

While locals awaited the construction of the Amargosa Valley facility, Solar Millennium LLC applied its $2.1 billion federal loan guarantee to a project in Blythe, Calif., two, 242-megawatt plants for which it expects to break ground in 2013. It is expected to be connected to the grid by 2014. Eventually Solar Millennium plans up to 1,000 megawatts of generation in Blythe, with four generating plants.

Solar Millennium has other projects planned in Ridgecrest, Calif. and Palen, Calif. California is under a mandate to receive 33 percent of its power from renewable energy by 2020.

The prepared statement refers to a conditional agreement for the sale of Solar Millennium, which has a portfolio of 2.25 gigawatts of power. A megawatt is 1 million watts, enough to power roughly 1,000 homes.

Solarhybrid AG develops, plans and builds turn key photovoltaic power plants, according to a company profile posted online. The company offers project development, financing and structuring, marketing, engineering, operation and maintenance. It has offices in Hamburg, Frankfurt and Brilon, Germany.

Solar Millennium AG is another German company based in Erlangen; the company has a U.S. project development subsidiary in Berkeley, Calif. It also has a global business partner, MAN Ferrostaal AG. Solar Millennium is a U.S. project development arm of Solar Trust of America LLC, an integrated, industrial solar solutions company in the southwestern U.S. formed in late 2009.

Solarhybrid Millennium said the acquisition would secure their return on investments made so far in the project development and profits once the development is completed. Solarhybrid states it would also ensure access to the U.S. market with additional revenue of more than $5 billion from 2013 to 2017.

“With this step we would undoubtedly reach a unique entry into the U.S. market and are taking an extremely important step in the internationalization of Solarhybrid AG. We are confident that the contract will finalize by Oct. 31,” said Tom Schoreder, CEO of the company.

Christoph Wolff, CEO of Solar Millennium AG, in a statement on the company’s website, said, “The agreement on the U.S. projects is not only favorable for Solar Millennium and its shareholders from an economic and strategic point of view. It ensures that our project investments in the U.S. retain their value, adequately involves Solar Millennium in the future earnings of the solar power plants located there and gives the company a clear structure.”

The Solar Millennium project in Amargosa Valley has been on the back burner after the U.S. Department of the Interior issued its record of decision approving the project on 4,600 acres of public land last November. The company has yet to execute power purchase agreements for the Amargosa Valley project, it will sell power for the Blythe solar plants to Southern California Edison in a deal approved by the California Public Utilities Commission in July 2010.

In August, Bloomberg News reported Solar Millennium AG made the decision to change its design for the Amargosa Valley project and the Blythe project from an expensive solar thermal parabolic trough to cheaper, photovoltaic power generation. Because of the conversion, Solar Millennium won’t be able to use the federal loan guarantee at the Blythe project, the Dow Jones Newswire reported this month.

PV technology uses solar cells made from silicon to convert sunlight into electricity. Parabolic trough technology involves mounting thousands of curved mirrors on the ground that concentrate heat from the sun onto tubes containing fluid that heat up producing steam to drive turbines.

The company press release refers to Solarhybrid’s specialty of constructing photovoltaic power plants through various agreements that are nearing approval. Solarhybrid AG states it will use technology for solar thermal storage with PV technology. Solar Millennium had planned on using a technology that would allow solar radiation to be stored up to six hours after sunlight.

The transaction is scheduled to be completed late this month. The 2.25 gigawatts Solarhybrid AG has in the pipeline will make it one of the largest PV developers in the U.S., that would be enough to power over 2 million homes.