$1.4B in Loan Guarantees to BrightSource Energy
EIS Issued for 750 MW Solar Two Project
Biofuel Options Expand as Science Taps New Sources
U.S. Utilities Spent $5.3B on 2009 Efficiency Programs
Winter Olympics Sets Public Transit Records
Copenhagen Accord Pledges Fall Short
$1.4 Billion in Loan Guarantees to BrightSource Energy
DOE announced on February 22 its conditional commitments for $1.37 billion in loan guarantees to BrightSource Energy, Inc. in support of the construction and start-up of three utility-scale concentrated solar power plants (CSP) in the Mojave Desert of southeastern California.
The loan guarantee is funded under the Recovery Act and is predicated on BrightSource meeting financial and environmental requirements. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is leading a federal review of the project with support from DOE. Pending local, state, and federal regulatory approval, the plants will generate 400 MW of electricity. This output would nearly double the existing generation capacity of U.S. CSP facilities.
The Ivanpah Solar Complex will be located on federally owned land near the Nevada border and will be the world's largest operational CSP complex. BrightSource will employ solar tower technology, using thousands of flat mirrors, or "heliostats," to concentrate the sun's heat onto a receiver mounted at the top of a tower. Water pumped to the receiver is boiled into steam, which drives a turbine to produce electricity. Solar towers capture a greater percentage of solar energy than other solar thermal technologies.
Construction of the first plant should begin in the second half of 2010 and come on line in 2012. Commercial operation for the second plant is slated for mid-2013, with the third plant following later that year. Once operational, the project will supply power to 140,000 California homes. See the DOE press release and DOE's Loan Guarantee Program Web site.
BrightSource filed a proposal on February 11 to shrink the footprint of the Ivanpah Solar Complex, reducing its environmental impact. The alternative design-submitted to the California Energy Commission (CEC) and the BLM as part of Ivanpah's final permit process-came in response to public comments. The proposed changes reduce the footprint of the third plant by 23% and trim the overall project about 12%, while avoiding the area identified by environmental groups as posing the greatest concern. If approved, the changes would lower the site's total gross capacity from 440 MW to 392 MW. See the BrightSource press release (PDF 41 KB).
Although solar towers were originally developed by DOE and U.S. industries, the technology has so far been deployed mainly on the plains of Spain. Last September, Abengoa Solar inaugurated its PS20 solar plant, the largest solar tower plant in the world. Located in Seville, PS20 has 1,000 mirrors and is designed to produce 20 MW of power. See the Abengoa Solar press release.
Environmental Assessment Issued for 750 MW Solar Two Project
The CEC and BLM released a joint staff assessment and draft environmental impact statement for the Solar Two Project, a 750 MW project to be located in Imperial County, about 100 miles east of San Diego. Stirling Energy Systems (SES) and Tessera Solar propose to build 42,000 dish/Stirling systems, called SunCatchers, on 10 square miles in the desert.
Dish/Stirling systems employ a sophisticated tracking system to point a dish-shaped array of mirrors at the sun, concentrating the sun's heat on a Stirling heat engine, which converts the heat into electricity.
