Bechtel Construction Company and two labor organizations announced an agreement for the construction of BrightSource Energy’s Ivanpah Solar Electricity Generating System, a 440-megawatt (MW) solar power facility in southeastern California.
Under the Project Labor Agreement (PLA), the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California (SBCTC), and the Building & Construction Trades Council of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties will provide workers to BrightSource’s Ivanpah project, and Bechtel will provide fair wages, fringe benefits, and working conditions.
BrightSource’s Ivanpah facility, comprising three solar thermal power plants, is scheduled to begin construction in 2010 following final permitting by the California Energy Commission and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
The project will result in approximately 1,000 jobs at the peak of construction, with total construction wages of approximately $250 million.
"This is a significant agreement," said Ian Copeland, president of Bechtel Renewables and New Technology. "It not only benefits labor and Bechtel, it benefits the entire renewable energy industry as it grows to meet the increasing demand for clean energy. The success of this agreement will point the way for the construction of future renewable energy projects."
BrightSource’s Ivanpah plants will produce enough clean energy to power 150,000 homes and displace more than 450,000 tons (408,000 metric tonnes) of CO2 annually, which is the equivalent of taking more than 75,000 cars off the road. The power generated from these solar plants will be sold under separate contracts BrightSource Energy established with Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and Southern California Edison (SCE).
The Ivanpah facility will utilize BrightSource Energy’s Luz Power Tower 550 technology (LPT 550). The system produces electricity the same way as traditional power plants–by creating high temperature steam to turn a turbine. However, instead of using fossil fuels or nuclear power to create the steam, BrightSource uses thousands of mirrors called heliostats to reflect sunlight onto a boiler filled with water that sits atop a tower. When the sunlight hits the boiler, the water inside is heated and creates high temperature steam. The steam is then piped to a conventional turbine which generates electricity.
In order to conserve precious desert water, the LPT 550 system uses air-cooling to convert the steam back into water, resulting in a 90% reduction in water usage compared to conventional wet-cooling. The water is then returned to the boiler in an environmentally friendly closed system. Ivanpah will use approximately 100 acre feet of water–the equivalent of 300 homes worth of annual water use and 25 times less water than used by competing technologies that employ wet-cooling, according to Brightsource.
Loading...