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BrightSource Energy Inc. has selected Bechtel as the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for the Ivanpah Solar Electricity Generating System. The two companies also announced that Bechtel Enterprises, the project development and financing arm of the Bechtel organization, will become an equity investor in all of the Ivanpah solar power plants.
The LPT 550 solar system produces electricity the same way as traditional power plants – by creating high temperature steam to turn a turbine.
Under the terms of a series of EPC agreements, Bechtel will provide engineering, procurement, and construction services for the Ivanpah System – a 440-megawatt (MW) solar power facility consisting of three separate solar thermal power plants in southeastern California.
The power generated from these solar plants will be sold under separate contracts established by BrightSource Energy with Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and Southern California Edison (SCE). BrightSource’s contracts with PG&E and SCE total 2.6 gigawatts (GW).
BrightSource estimates that the Ivanpah facility will result in approximately 1,000 jobs at the peak of construction, 86 permanent jobs, and total economic benefits of $3 billion.
The Ivanpah facility is scheduled to begin construction in early 2010 following final permitting by the California Energy Commission and the Bureau of Land Management. In December 2008, BrightSource signed an agreement with Siemens to purchase the largest ever solar-powered steam turbine generator for the first of the three Ivanpah plants.
The Ivanpah facility will utilize BrightSource Energy’s Luz Power Tower 550 technology (LPT 550). The LPT 550 solar system produces electricity the same way as traditional power plants – by creating high temperature steam to turn a turbine. 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.
The LPT 550 solar system is also designed to minimize the solar plant’s environmental impact, reducing the need for extensive land grading and concrete pads. In order to conserve precious desert water, LPT 550 uses air-cooling to convert the steam back into water, resulting in a 90 percent reduction in water usage compared to conventional wet-cooling. The water is then returned to the boiler in an environmentally-friendly closed process.
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We need to STOP Bright Source and its desert death squads from permanently destroying tens of thousands of pristine acres of our CO2-absorbing Mojave, and tell them to get to work on point of use solutions that can be operated within the built environment. There is NO excuse for the tortoise murders and water waste and blight their crappy industrial projects will bring to the mix, especially since they are planning on burning gas for most of the time.
POINT OF USE SOLUTIONS WITHIN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT SUPPORTED BY GENEROUS FEED IN TARIFFS AND LOAN PROGRAMS!! Preferably, owned by regular people, not Robber Barons. Nothing else should be on the drawing board, especially in our taxpayer owned wilderness areas.
when in actuality you are oil company lobbyists try to foul up progress
go stop the bark beetle buy managing our forests properly or are you the same tree hugs that stopped that great design too ?
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