BrightSource

Creation date:  6^th of November. 2012

Range of products

Solar thermal electricity generation

BrightSource estimates worldwide market for solar thermal electricity generation to exceed $200 billion by 2020 as a result of the continued focus on clean energy worldwide. Yet reliability and cost are and will remain top priorities for utilities. Our technology responds dynamically to both.

Renewable sources of energy – wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) – are unpredictable and not always aligned with peak energy demand. Such intermittent resources can impose increased operational costs on the grid in order to maintain their reliability. Due to their variable nature, back-up generation is required to maintain this reliability.

Combining energy storage with concentrating solar thermal power transforms solar energy into a flexible, dispatchable resource. Deployed at utility scale, it enables power generators to deliver clean energy, reliably and cost-competitively.

Principle of operation

Software-controlled mirors track the sun in three dimensions and reflect the sunlight to boiler which sit atop a tall tower. When the concentrated sunlight strikes the boilers' tubes, it heats the water to create superheated steam at more than 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. This high temperature steam is then piped from the boiler to a standard turbine where electricity is generated.

Invanpah current project

Concentrated Solar Thermal Plant of Invanpah California’s Mojave Desert Source of photograph : BrightSource

IVANPAH at a glance

Location: Ivanpah Dry Lake, CA

Size: Approx. 3,500 acres (federal land)

Power Production: 377 MW nominal (392 MW gross)

Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System—the largest of its type in the world—will power 140,000 California homes.

Over 170,000 software-controlled heliostats, each measuring 70 square feet, will track the sun in three dimensions.

The desert region—thanks to its elevation and clear, dry air—receives reliable sunlight 330 to 350 days per year.

The Oakland-based company BrightSource Energy, which is overseeing construction by the Bechtel corporation, says that using sunlight instead of fossil fuels to power the turbines will reduce carbon emissions by more than 400,000 tons annually.

Construction jobs: more than 2,100 construction workers and support staff at the peak of construction (3 years of construction.

Permanent operations and maintenance jobs: 86

Customers: PG&E and Southern California Edison

Partners: NRG, Google, Bechtel Corporation, and the Department of Energy

Construction Commenced: October 2010

Expected Completion Date: 2013

Total cost : $ 2.2 billion

Link to supplier's website

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Contact

BrightSource Energy Corporate Headquarters

1999 Harrison Street

Suite 2150

Oakland, CA 94612

Telephone: 510-550-8161

Fax: 510-550-8165

Media Inquiries: 510-250-8162

BrightSource Energy Israel Office

11 Kiryat Mada St., Amot bldg #6

P.O. Box 45220, Har Hotzvim

Jerusalem, 91450 Israel

Telephone: +972-(0)77-202-5000

Fax: +972-(0)2-571-1059

BrightSource Energy South Africa Office

Country Club Estate, Building 2

Woodlands Drive

Johannesburg 2191

South Africa Office telephone : +27 11 258 8744

email :

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