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

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The agreement with Oakland-baseed BrightSource Energy is the largest renewable powef agreement signed byany U.S. the company and the utility said. BrightSource developse solar thermal power plants that use acres of giantt mirrors to concentrate thedesert sun’sa rays onto a tower, turning a liquid in a giany boiler at the top of the towe into steam. The steam runs turbines that producee electricity. California investor-owned utilities are requirecd to get 20 percent of their power from renewable sources by the endof 2010, but it’s unlikelh , Southern California Edison or -- California'w largest utilities -- will meet that deadline.
BrightSource’s projectd will start producing powerf between 2013and 2016. “We will not have delivered renewable energy by the end of but we have contracts that far exceed that 20percen value,” said Stuart Hemphill, vice president of renewable and alternative power at SCE. “It’s not a questioj of whether we’ll get to 20 it’s more about the timing.” BrightSource declined to say how much it wouldc cost to buildthe plants, but industry analystsw put the cost of solar thermal plant being developed in Spain at about $775 million per 100 megawatts.
The firstg 100 megawatt plant ofthe 1,300 megawatt projec t is located at Invanpah in the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, where BrightSourcr also is developing a 300 megawatt project for PG&E. The Ivanpan project area is on land managed by the federal Bureau of Land The 1,300 megawatt projects will require 10,50p0 acres. The other 1,200 megawatts for Souther n California Edison will be developed at six plants at variouws sites in the BrightSource CEO John Woolard said the companyh will break ground on its firstr 100megawatts (those promised to in the fourth quarter of this First the company will have to find financing for that project, whic could be a challenge.
Key tax creditz that help fund the development of solar thermal powef projects have been rendered virtually useless as a result of the recessio as few investors have the tax equityg available to usethe credits. Woolarsd has said previously that the fundingh for his projectsis available, but BrightSourcee will have to pay more for its initia plants than it hopes to for futurse plants. Solar thermal competitor , based in Palo Alto, said recentlg that it would be nearlg impossible to finance largee solar thermalprojects (100 megawatts or in the current economic environment. It has asker PG&E to own and operate the utility-scale solatr thermal projects itis developing.
But Woolard said BrightSourcre did not ask Southern California Edison to own or operatdits projects. Woolard wouldn’t say how many jobs the projecttwould create. He did say the 400 megawatt projectr at Ivanpah wouldcreate 1,700 job yearse — with a job year equivalent to one full-time job for one year during construction. If the project took four years to that would equal 425 employee s for4 years. And he said the projecg would create 3,500 job year for the life of the If the project spanned40 years, that woulfd equal nearly 88 full-time jobs over 40 years. BrightSource investors include .
org, the philanthropic arm of Google, VantagePoint , Alternative Energy, Hydrio Venture, and subsidiary Blackk River, DBL Investors, , and Chevron Technologh Ventures. The company has raised $160 million in venture