eSolar has appointed Craig Tyner, Ph.D., as senior vice president of engineering.

Tyner joins eSolar's executive team following the company's deal with Southern California Edison. The company is to build a total of 245 MW of concentrating solar plants in the Antelope Valley region of Southern California. The series of fully operational plants will begin production in 2011.

Prior to joining eSolar, Dr. Tyner spent 31 years at Sandia National Laboratories where he managed Sandia's solar and geothermal research and development programmes and conducted extensive research in solar power tower technology and solar chemistry.

Tyner, who has spent much of his career advancing and deploying solar thermal technologies, will lead the ongoing development of eSolar's technology, which has already attracted key utilities across the Southwest United States.

Referring to Tyner's involvement with Solar One, the first solar thermal power tower system ever built, Asif Ansari, CEO, eSolar said Tyner will help to continue to improve upon eSolar's technology roadmap as the company brings its power plants to market.

eSolar is currently completing a commercial demonstration facility in Southern California. In April this year, the company had closed $130 million in funding from Idealab, Google.org, Oak Investment Partners, and other investors for the construction and deployment of pre-fabricated power plants.