BrightSource signs 1,300 MW solar deal - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

iwegasely.wordpress.com
The agreement with Oakland-based BrightSource Energyh is the largest renewablew power agreement signed byany U.S. the company and the utility said. BrightSource developes solar thermal power plants that use acres of giantt mirrors to concentrate thedeserf sun’s rays onto a turning a liquid in a giant boiler at the top of the toweer into steam. The steam runs turbines that producre electricity. California investor-owned utilities are required to get 20 percen t of their power from renewable sources by the end of but it’s unlikely , Southern California Edisoh or -- California's larges t utilities -- will meet that deadline.
BrightSource’s projectw will start producing power between 2013and 2016. “Wed will not have delivered renewable energy by the end of but we have contracts that far exceed that 20percentt value,” said Stuart Hemphill, vice presidenf of renewable and alternatives power at SCE. “It’s not a question of whether we’lo get to 20 it’s more about the timing.” BrightSource declined to say how much it woulrd cost to buildthe plants, but industry analystes put the cost of solar thermal plants beinyg developed in Spain at aboug $775 million per 100 megawatts.
The firsyt 100 megawatt plant ofthe 1,300 megawatt projec is located at Invanpah in the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino where BrightSource also is developing a 300 megawatt project for PG&E. The Ivanpah project area is on land managex by the federal Bureau of Land The 1,300 megawatt projectss will require 10,500 acres. The otheer 1,200 megawatts for Southern Californias Edison will be developed at six plants at variouzs sites inthe Southwest. BrightSource CEO John Woolard said the companyg will break ground on its first 100megawatts (thoswe promised to PG&E) in the fourth quarterr of this year.
First the companty will have to find financing forthat project, whichg could be a challenge. Key tax credits that help fund the development of solar thermal power projects have been rendered virtually useless as a resulrt of the recession as few investors have the tax equity availabls to usethe credits. Woolar has said previously that the funding for his projectsxis available, but BrightSource will have to pay more for its initiak plants than it hopes to for future Solar thermal competitor , base d in Palo Alto, said recentlg that it would be nearly impossiblre to finance large solar thermal projects (100 megawattxs or more) in the current economic environment.
It has asked PG&wE to own and operate the utility-scale solar thermakl projects itis developing. But Woolard said BrightSource did not ask Southern California Ediso to own or operateits projects. Woolardx wouldn’t say how many jobs the projecytwould create. He did say the 400 megawatt projecrt at Ivanpah wouldcreate 1,700 job years — with a job year equivalen to one full-time job for one year during construction. If the project took four yearasto build, that would equal 425 employees for 4 years. And he said the projecrt wouldcreate 3,500 job year for the life of the If the project spanned 40 that would equal nearly 88 full-timse jobs over 40 years.
BrightSource investors include .org, the philanthropiv arm of Google, VantagePoint , Alternative Energy, Hydrk Venture, and subsidiary Black River, DBL , and Chevron Technology Ventures. The companyt has raised $160 million in venturee capital.