The US Department of Energy on Monday announced conditional commitments for more than $1.37 billion in loan guarantees under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to BrightSource Energy, Inc. to support the construction and start-up of three utility-scale concentrated solar power plants.
This is a good sign for the company, which has run into siting issues for its California desert proposals.
The new plants will generate approximately 400 megawatts (MW) of electricity. This would nearly double the existing generation capacity of this type of renewable energy in the U.S.
The three-plant Ivanpah Solar Complex will be located on federally-owned land in the Mojave Desert in southeastern California, near the Nevada border, and will be the world’s largest operational concentrated solar power complex. Once operational, the project will supply clean electric power to approximately 140,000 California homes.
BrightSource estimates that the construction of this complex will employ approximately 1,000 people, and its operation will create 86 permanent solar jobs. BrightSource’s construction contractor has entered into project labor agreements with various trade unions for the construction of the project.
The loan guarantee is conditioned on financial and environmental requirements BrightSource must meet before closing on the loan, including local, state and federal regulatory approvals. The Bureau of Land Management will continue leading a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review with support from the Department of Energy. Ivanpah is one of the projects on the BLM’s fast track list for environmental review by the end of the year.
Earlier this month, BrightSource offered to scale down the size of the Ivanpah project in response to criticism that it intrudes on the habitat of endangered desert tortoises.
In September 2009, BrightSource dropped plans for a 500-MW power plant in the Mojave Desert, because conservationists want the area turned into a national monument.
The first plant is expected to begin construction in the second half of 2010 and come on line in 2012. Commercial operation for the second plant is slated for mid-2013 and the third later in 2013. Electricity from the project will be sold under long-term power purchase agreements with Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison Company (SCE). The project will be interconnected to the electricity grid via an upgraded SCE transmission line.
The conditional commitments contemplate that the Federal Financing Bank will provide the financing for the project.
This is the sixth conditional commitment for a loan guarantee for clean and renewable energy projects entered into by the Department’s Loan Programs Office, which manages the nation’s green energy loan portfolio.
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