BrightSource Energy Awards EPC Contract to Bechtel for Solar Power Facility

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--BrightSource Energy Incorporated (Oakland, California) has announced the selection of Bechtel Group Incorporated (San Francisco, California) to provide engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services for the Ivanpah solar electricity generating system in southeastern California. In addition, Bechtel Enterprises, the finance and project development division of Bechtel, will participate in the project as an equity investor. The Ivanpah solar power complex will consist of three separate solar thermal power plants with a combined capacity of 440 megawatts (MW).

The Ivanpah complex will use the Luz Power Tower 550 (LPT) technology, developed by BrightSource, to generate high-temperature steam that will be used to drive a turbine. The LPT system uses a series of mirrors, known as heliostats, to focus sunlight on a boiler mounted on a tower. Thousands of heliostats track the sun, ensuring that the maximum amount of solar energy is always focused on the boiler. Steam produced from the boiler is used to drive a turbine to produce electricity and is then air-cooled, using up to 90% less water in the closed loop system than a conventional wet-cooled system.

In December 2008, BrightSource signed a purchase agreement with Siemens AG (NYSE:SI) (Munich, Germany) to supply a 123-MW solar-powered steam turbine-generator. Upon commissioning, the unit will be the largest fully solar-powered system to date.

Construction at the Ivanpah site is expected to begin in early 2010, after the California Energy Commission and the Bureau of Land Management grant final permission. Delivery of the turbine from Siemens is scheduled for early 2011, allowing for the lengthy production process involved in building the turbine. BrightSource expects the first phase of the complex to begin supplying power by the end of 2011.

When fully complete, the Ivanpah facility is expected to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by more than 450,000 tons per year, the equivalent of removing 75,000 cars from service. The facility will provide renewable energy to more than 140,000 homes in California.

BrightSource has established separate contracts to deliver electricity produced from the Ivanpah facility to PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG) (San Francisco) and Southern California Edison Company (Rosemead, California). The combined contracts call for BrightSource to deliver 2,600 MW of electricity, with 1,300 MW destined for Southern California Edison and 1,310 MW to be supplied to PG&E.

BrightSource has more than three decades of experience in design, construction and operation of large solar-energy plants. The firm is currently developing solar power projects with a combined capacity of more than 4,000 MW in the southwestern states. The facilities will generate power sufficient for 1.4 million homes.

In order to test equipment, procedures and materials, as well as construction and operating methodologies, BrightSource has established a Solar Energy Development Center in Israel's Negav Desert, at the Rotem Industrial Park, about 100 kilometers southeast of Jerusalem. The 4- to 6-MW test facility includes an LPT system, which has 1,600 heliostats focused on a solar boiler mounted at the top of a 60-meter tower. Tests have proven that water in the boiler is heated to 550 degrees Celsius (1,022 degrees Fahrenheit)--the world's highest temperature of steam produced using solar power.

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