A massive solar power agreement between Southern California Edison and Stirling Energy got strong support from the California Public Utilities Commission this week. State regulators took the matter off this week's consent calendar and moved it to the regular agenda to draw attention to its approval. The project plans for solar thermal dishes to be spread over hundreds of acres. Their energy would be concentrated on piston engines to create electricity. The project could eventually supply between 500 MW and 850 MW. "We want to make California a solar nation," said CPUC president Mike Peevey. The 20-year contract, under which the developer bears all the risk, will launch with a1 MW project in 2007. If this technology, not previously tried on a commercial scale, is successful, it could grow to 20,000 dish arrays over a four-year period (Circuit, Oct. 14, 2005). The price per kilowatt-hour of the solar power was kept secret but will be below the CPUC benchmark price of 7-8 cents/kWh, according to the commission.