Abengoa Solar has received a Certificate of Environmental Compatibility from the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC).

The permit is one of the several key ones necessary to begin construction on Solana Generating Station solar power plant in Gila Bend, 80 miles southwest of Phoenix.

Kate Maracas, VP - Arizona operations for Abengoa Solar said this landmark ruling has opened a significant door for further development of this commercial-scale solar project.

Abengoa Solar has a Power Purchase Agreement with the Arizona utility APS for the electricity generated by Solana. The plant will have a capacity of 280 Megawatts.

"Today's site approval, coupled with the renewal of the federal Investment Tax Credit in October brings us a big step closer to beginning construction on Solana," said Santiago Seage, CEO of Abengoa Solar.

"Nevertheless, we still have lots of work ahead of us. We need until the summer of 2009 to obtain the remaining permits and shortly before that we should be ready to finance Solana, once financial markets improve. Solana is a very strong project with financially stable and experienced development partners, but efforts to make the investment tax credit refundable and the current rate case APS is going through are both important for Solana," added Seage.

The plant will cover a surface of approximately 1,900 acres.