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BrightSource raises $150m to back solar thermal ambitions

BrightSource has already established a 4-6MW demonstration plant in Israel

Utility-scale solar thermal developer BrightSource Energy, Inc., has raised a further $150 million to support its plans to build 2,610-megawatts of generating plants by 2016.

The company has 14 large solar plants in the development pipeline, with contracts in place to provide electricity to utilities including Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric Company.

It said today it has raised equity financing from new investors including French engineering giant Alstom and the California State Teachers Retirement System.

Existing investors taking part in the funding round ingluded VantagePoint Venture Partners, Morgan Stanley and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

The company based in Oakland, California, said the funds would support its international expansion plans as well as the development pipeline for 14 solar thermal power plants in the southwest United States.

John Woolard, Chief Executive Officer of BrightSource, said the capital raised reflected market confidence in his company and its Luz Power Tower technology.

He said: “By adding new strategic investors to our current blue chip investor base, we strengthen our ability to make solar thermal energy a significant part of the world’s energy mix.”

The company’s technology involves huge fields comprising thousands of mirrors (known as heliostats) that reflect sunlight at a single focal point, a central tower, where it heats water to produce steam that drives an electricity-generating turbine.

A 100MW solar plant would require 50,000 heliostats, but BrightSource says its small, flat mirrors are cheaper to make than the curved heliostats used by some other solar thermal technologies.

The company opened a 4-6MW prototype plant in Israel in 2008 to demonstrate the technology.

Alstom

Power generation engineering specialists Alstom committed up to $55 million in the investment round, representing the French company’s entry into the solar market.

Alstom said the deal would position it as one of BrightSource’s main shareholders,

Philippe Joubert, Alstom Power President, said the investment would begin a “fruitful industrial relationship”, hinting that the deal could see his company offering engineering and construction services for some of BrightSource’s projects.

Mr Joubert said: “Alstom’s Plant Integrator capabilities, proven engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) skills and global customer base will help BrightSource make solar energy cost competitive with fossil fuels by developing, building, owning and operating the most cost-effective and reliable large-scale solar energy projects.”

One of BrightSource’s key projects is the massive Ivanpah Solar Electric Generation System, proposed for California’s Mojave Desert.

Backed by a $1.37 billion loan guarantee from the federal government (see this BrighterEnergy.org story), the project seeks to build the world’s largest solar plant, expected to create more than 1,000 construction jobs.

That particular project has San Francisco-based Bechtel in place as engineering, procurement and construction contractor, with expectations of breaking ground later this year.

The first phase of the Ivanpah facility is set to come online in 2012.