BrightSource Energy Inc. has secured the necessary approval from California Energy Commission that will bring the solar company one step closer to constructing the 392-megawatt Ivanpah solar power project in the southeastern part of the state.
Located in the Mojave Desert, the planned solar complex will comprise three concentrating solar power plants that will generate enough power for over 140,000 homes while reducing 400,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually – the equivalent of removing 70,000 cars from the road.
The solar facilities will generate electricity by using mirrors to refocus solar rays on solar receivers that are located atop power towers. Each plant will be equipped with a natural gas-powered boiler to provide the heat needed to start up.
A Rankine cycle reheat team turbine will also be fitted on each plant to harness the steam from the solar boilers. In addition, the solar facilities will use a closed-loop, dry-cooling technology to ease water consumption by about 90 percent.
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The Ivanpah solar project is expected to create 1,000 green jobs at the peak of its construction and will provide over $1 billion in state and local tax benefits and employee wages, including $650 million in employee earnings over the first 30 years of operations.
BrightSource already signed power purchase agreements with Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) for the power generated by the solar complex. PG&E will purchase approximately two-thirds of the power produced by the solar facilities, while Southern California Edison will buy the remaining one-third.
The United States Department of Energy also granted BrightSource $1.37 billion in conditional loan guarantees to support the development of the solar project.
“With the PG&E and Southern California Edison contracts, a conditional [United States] Department of Energy loan guarantee and [California Energy Commission] permit, the Ivanpah project is uniquely positioned to make a meaningful contribution to the world-leading renewable energy standards Governor Schwarzenegger and the California Legislature have established for the state, and to bring good jobs to the California’s High Desert community,” said John Woolard, president and chief executive of BrightSource Energy.
The company is now waiting for the Bureau of Land Management to present its final record of decision in the next few weeks. By October, BrightSource expects to obtain all the necessary permits to begin construction of the project.
The first plant is scheduled to come online in mid-2012.
“Large-scale solar technologies provide one of our best hopes for solving the problem of global climate change,” said Amy Davidsen, United States director of nonprofit organization The Climate Group.
“To meet this potential, we need to scale up the use of these technologies as soon as possible. Today’s decision to approve the Ivanpah project represents a significant step toward the realization of this goal,” she concluded.
