Jul 2, 2013 - Heliotrop expects to find a buyer this year for electricity from a 40-megawatt power plant it's developing in northern Mexico.

The company plans to begin construction in 2015 on the Proyecto 1024 Soles plant in Sonora state, Paul Bellavoine, a spokesman for Lyon, France-based Heliotrop, said today in a telephone interview.

Heliotrop will be able to sell electricity from solar plants in Mexico for $60 a megawatt hour in 2020, less than half what some businesses pay for power now, he said. The closely held company's panels use lenses that focus sunlight on solar cells, boosting electricity output compared to conventional photovoltaic technology.

Heliotrop expects to deliver "hundreds of megawatts" of panels annually to Mexican clients once Proyecto 1024 Soles is complete, he said. The company has built several small solar projects in Europe and expects to have 10 megawatts of capacity online by the middle of next year.