BrightSource Energy, Inc., developer of utility-scale solar thermal power plants, announced Friday that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued its Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the company’s Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System.
The 3,600-acre project is located in the desert in San Bernardino
County, California. When constructed, the project will be the world’s
largest solar energy project, nearly doubling the amount of solar
thermal electricity produced in the U.S. today.
The FEIS marks a second permitting milestone reached by BrightSource’s Ivanpah project last week. On Wednesday, the company announced that a California Energy Commission (CEC) siting committee issued a proposed decision recommending approval of the project. BrightSource expects to have all of the final permits to commence construction in fall 2010.
Following an extensive evaluation of alternative environmental designs required by the National Environmental Policy Act, the BLM concluded that the 392-megawatt (gross) option identified in the Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement is the preferred alternative.
BrightSource’s proprietary Luz Power Tower (LPT) technology enables the company to employ a low-impact environmental design. Instead of the extensive land grading and concrete pads, BrightSource mounts mirrors on individual poles that are placed directly into the ground, allowing the solar field to be built around the natural contours of the land and avoid areas of sensitive vegetation. This design also allows for vegetation to co-exist within the solar field.
In order to conserve precious desert water, the Ivanpah project will employ an air-cooling system to convert the steam back into water in a closed-loop cycle. By using air-cooling, the project will use only 100 acre feet of water per year, approximately 95% less water than competing solar thermal technologies that use wet-cooling, BrightSource said.
The Ivanpah project will consist of three separate solar thermal power plants and provide power under separate contracts with Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) (NYSE: PCG) and Southern California Edison (SCE) (NYSE: EIX). PG&E will purchase approximately two-thirds of the power generated at Ivanpah and SCE will purchase approximately one-third. In all, BrightSource has contracted with PG&E and SCE to deliver more than 2,600 megawatts (MW) of electric power.
The Ivanpah project has been identified as a “fast-track” priority by the BLM for obtaining federal stimulus benefits for California under the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). In February 2010, BrightSource received a conditional commitment from the U.S. Department of Energy for $1.37 billion in loan guarantees to support the financing of the Ivanpah project.
The Ivanpah project will be built by engineering and construction firm Bechtel.
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