Lauren Engineers & Constructors has signed on with Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for a new 75-megawatt (MW) concentrated solar power (CSP) plant located near Indiantown, Florida.

This project, named the Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center, will be located on 500 acres of land adjacent to FPL’s Martin Plant. The company broke ground on the plant at the end of last year.

Using parabolic trough technology to capture heat from the sun, this project will include approximately 180,000 parabolic mirrors. Total power produced for this new solar plant will be 155,000 megawatt-hours of power annually.

As a hybrid solar facility that combines a solar-thermal field with a combined-cycle natural gas power plant, the Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center will use less fossil fuel when heat from the sun is available to help produce the steam needed to generate electricity. 

In addition to this solar project, Lauren also built the Nevada Solar One Power Plant, a 64-MW solar power plant located in Boulder City, Nevada. Construction on that plant was completed in June 2007.