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Policy & Politics BrightSource Energy CSP solar tower. Brightsource raised $201 million in 2011.

Published on February 24th, 2010 | by Susan Kraemer

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BrightSource Gets Department of Energy Loan Guarantee if Tortoise Issue Solved

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February 24th, 2010 by  

BrightSource got a boost from the Department of Energy this week with a loan guarantee of $1.37 billion to help build three concentrated solar thermal power plants producing 400 MW of clean solar power in the Mojave Desert of southeastern California.

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However, it is predicated upon BrightSource meeting the environmental requirements before closing on the loan, and it is precisely those environmental requirements that have bogged it down. The desert tortoise has held up approval so far. The Bureau of Land Management is leading a federal review of the project with support from DOE.

Early this year, after working with environmental groups, Senator Feinstein of California stepped in with clarification on what is and is not an environmentally sensitive area, creating maps to make the approval process easier and more predictable, showing where solar plants are likely to encounter resistance – and where it is safe to plan one.

Then BrightSource filed a proposal on February 11 to shrink the footprint of the Ivanpah Solar Complex, reducing its environmental impact in response to public comments about the project.

The proposed changes would reduce the footprint of the third Ivanpah plant by 23% and trim the overall project by about 12%, while avoiding the area identified by environmental groups as posing the greatest concern. The new plans call for dropping the number of solar towers in the third Ivanpah plant from 5 to 1, which brings the overall total number of towers in the power plant to 3. It also cuts the number of heliostats by about 40,000. If approved, these changes would lower the site’s total gross capacity from 440 MW to 392 MW.

If this can be approved, Ivanpah Solar Complex would nearly double existing generation capacity of CSP facilities in the United States, and would become the world’s largest operational concentrated solar thermal power complex.

The technology uses 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 power towers allow the capture of a greater percentage of solar energy than other solar thermal technologies, and includes storage at night.

Related Stories:

Few Solar Applications Are Within Feinstein Proposed Desert Monument Area

BrightSource Splits Utility-Scale Solar Plant With Housing Developer

Image: BrightSource

Source: EERE

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About the Author

writes at CleanTechnica, CSP-Today, PV-Insider , SmartGridUpdate, and GreenProphet. She has also been published at Ecoseed, NRDC OnEarth, MatterNetwork, Celsius, EnergyNow, and Scientific American. As a former serial entrepreneur in product design, Susan brings an innovator's perspective on inventing a carbon-constrained civilization: If necessity is the mother of invention, solving climate change is the mother of all necessities! As a lover of history and sci-fi, she enjoys chronicling the strange future we are creating in these interesting times.    Follow Susan on Twitter @dotcommodity.


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  • Gerard Vaughan

    One very simple question. How does the cost of one of the “Heliostat” reflectors compare to a silicon photovoltaic panel ?

    I have no figures, but I cannot imagine this system – with it’s steam-cycle thermo. of a few percent, possibly being a fraction of the return on an equivalent Solar PV. And they are throwing Billions ?! – of $ of CO2 into it STOPPPPP!!!!

    • http://cleantechnica.com/author/susan Susan Kraemer

      Actually, at the utility-scale – most solar thermal technologies are cheaper than most solar PV. It’s not a technology that’s suitable for residential solar though, although Sopogy has (at least issued press releases announcing) success with small scale installs of a similar solar thermal technique, and is aiming for commercial roof installs to use it to make hot water for air conditioning.

  • Gerard Vaughan

    One very simple question. How does the cost of one of the “Heliostat” reflectors compare to a silicon photovoltaic panel ?

    I have no figures, but I cannot imagine this system – with it’s steam-cycle thermo. of a few percent, possibly being a fraction of the return on an equivalent Solar PV. And they are throwing Billions ?! – of $ of CO2 into it STOPPPPP!!!!

  • Gerard Vaughan

    One very simple question. How does the cost of one of the “Heliostat” reflectors compare to a silicon photovoltaic panel ?

    I have no figures, but I cannot imagine this system – with it’s steam-cycle thermo. of a few percent, possibly being a fraction of the return on an equivalent Solar PV. And they are throwing Billions ?! – of $ of CO2 into it STOPPPPP!!!!

    • http://cleantechnica.com/author/susan Susan Kraemer

      Actually, at the utility-scale – most solar thermal technologies are cheaper than most solar PV. It’s not a technology that’s suitable for residential solar though, although Sopogy has (at least issued press releases announcing) success with small scale installs of a similar solar thermal technique, and is aiming for commercial roof installs to use it to make hot water for air conditioning.

    • http://cleantechnica.com/author/susan Susan Kraemer

      Actually, at the utility-scale – most solar thermal technologies are cheaper than most solar PV. It’s not a technology that’s suitable for residential solar though, although Sopogy has (at least issued press releases announcing) success with small scale installs of a similar solar thermal technique, and is aiming for commercial roof installs to use it to make hot water for air conditioning.

    • TG

      I realise I’m a little late but…
      Thermo cycles are 30-40% efficient -much better than PV
      mirrors are REALLY cheap, about 10 cents/W. The real cost of the system is the steel that holds the mirrors. Like Susan said solar thermal is cheaper than PV at a large scale but is basically useless at a small scale.

  • http://www.car-free.ca Grover

    Boiled tortoise soup…. Yummm!

  • http://www.car-free.ca Grover

    Boiled tortoise soup…. Yummm!

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