Tessera Solar on tuesday said that they have sold its 850-megawatt solar power project in California until a few months ago, was ready to be a showcase piece of the company.

K Road, through the K Street Power Sun subsidiary, has purchased a Calico Solar Power Project, which recently received approval for the California Energy Commission. The acquisition is a strange saga of turning a giant power plant, which went through a long gestation period before the end to ensure the authorization to begin construction.

But the economic woes faced by its parent company quickly eclipsed that achievement, after which the decision of the Southern California Edison to withdraw their consent to purchase electricity from the project. All these developments – which ensure that licenses to sell Calico – took place within weeks.

Neither of  Tessera and K Power reveal the selling price of the project. The press release, K Power, said that plans to build 850-megawatt project, but the biggest part of the project does not focus on using solar thermal technology Tessera had in mind. Instead, 750-megawatt project using solar panels. The remaining 150 megawatts continue to employ solar thermal technology. Capital investments into the project likely to achieve about $ 3 billion, Tessera said.

Calico has been developed for years and was initially supervised Stirling Energy Systems (SES), which develops devices are called Stirling engines. Each 25-kilowatt Stirling Engine system is a giant parabolic dish mirrors which concentrate and direct sunlight to heat up hydrogen gas inside what is called “Power Conversion Unit”, in order to drive 4-cylinder engine, which in turn drives a generator to produce electricity.

SES signed a contract to sell electricity to Southern California Edison project in 2005. The project languished for a while SES is not enough to continue technology development. Then an Irish company, NTR, came to the rescue in 2008 and pumped $ 100,000,000 for small businesses.

SES Solar ago, created by Tessera in 2009, so that Tessera should focus on the development of the project, but Stirling could focus on the development of technology and equipment sales. Then, SES was finishing up re-design of the system known as the Stirling Engine SunCatcher and get ready to move manufacturing equipment. In September 2009, SES announced production plans for 2010.

California Energy Commission gave approval Calico project in October this year, but then had to change the approval date of 1 December, as the Commission has put forward the correct documentation on time. The project also faced potential legal challenges from critics over its impact on the desert wildlife. Tessera and NTR at the same time, have difficulty in raising the necessary money to move the project forward. Then came the news last week that Southern California Edison decided to withdraw its power purchase agreement.

The Commission approved the project Calico 663.5 megawatts, but the project really got the grid interconnection of the 850 MW (the original size of the project before the Commission reduced to minimize its impact on nature).

Tessera also received the approval of the Commission’s 709-megawatt project. This Imperial Valley Solar Project is facing a legal challenge Quechan Indian tribe, which claims that it has not been adequately consulted before the government approved the project. Tessera has signed an agreement to sell electricity to the Imperial Valley San Diego Gas & Electric. The federal government has adopted a solar power projects.