World's Largest Solar Energy Project Brightens California

8/9/2019 World's Largest Solar Energy Project Brightens California

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World’s Largest Solar Energy

Project Brightens California

Thousands of small mirrors--heliostats--focus sun's rays

Karin Kloosterman:

Solar power history is being made in Southern California.Southern California Edison and BrightSource Energy fromIsrael have signed the world’s largest solar energy deal.

Now awaiting approval from the California Public Utilities

Commission, when the contracts are fulfilled — this couldhappen by as early as 2013 — the Israeli-California sunproject will power almost 1 million California homes.

Israel Kroizer, the chief operating officer, and president of BrightSource in Israel says that when completed, it will bethe world’s largest solar energy project. Some 1,300



megawatts of energy will be created, with the first plantto be built in Ivanpah, California, expected to generate286,000 megawatt-hours per year. The project will alsocreate more jobs in the region. “It’s the biggest solar

energy project ever signed,” Kroizer emphasizes, andwhen complete it will be the largest solar energy plant inthe world, he adds.

Towering Sun Stations

Last year, BrightSource created a media sensation whenit launched its pilot plant in Israel’s Negev Desert.Employing thousands of tiny mirrors called heliostats,

BrightSource unveiled the Luz Power Tower — the LPT550 — to reflect sunlight from the heliostats onto a boileratop a tower. Producing steam from the concentratedheat, the steam is piped to a turbine to generateelectricity.

Built with water-conserving principles in mind, theBrightSource system uses air-cooling to convert thesteam back into water. The environmentally friendly

closed cycle solution is, according to the company,designed to offer the highest operating efficiencies andlowest costs in the industry.

“We opened a pilot in Israel last year — a demo plant torun some tests — and we were really satisfied with theresults. Now we are focusing in the States, and willrespond to the [solar energy] tender being published inIsrael. Israel is a target market for us, but it’s not the

same size as the US,” said Kroizer.As part of the deal with its American partner SCE,BrightSource will maintain its engineering and logisticsfacilities in Israel. Equipment will be purchased fromaround the world, while the company’s corporate officesfor project and business development and financing will



continue working out of Oakland, California. BrightSource,which was officially founded in 2004, and startedoperating in 2006, employs 30 people in the US, and 90in Israel.

Arizona and New Mexico Next

In a few months, Kroizer says, BrightSource will startconstructing the solar project in the US, and next on itslist for solar energy power plants are other sun-drenchedstates — all over southwest California, Arizona and NewMexico.

In the United States, BrightSource’s partner SCE, is the

country’s leading buyer of renewable. In 2007, itpurchased about 80 percent of all the solar energy usedin the US. As the largest electric utilities company inCalifornia, it serves a population of about 13 millionpeople, living within a 50,000-square-mile area in central,coastal and Southern California.

“These contracts represent a significant addition to ourrenewable portfolio, which is already the nation’slargest.” said Stuart Hemphill, the VP of Renewable andAlternative Power at SCE. “This innovative solartechnology helps to further our position as the nation’slargest purchaser of solar energy, as well.”

The World Economic Forum voted BrightSource as a 2009 Technology Pioneer. It was the only solar company to winthis year’s award, and is recognized for helping industrialcustomers reduce their dependence on fossil fuels.

While BrightSource’s contribution is significant — the newplants will prevent two million tons of carbon dioxidegreenhouse gases emissions from entering theatmosphere annually (about 335,000 cars-worth of emissions) — it’s not a golden bullet solution.



Says Kroizer: “I think it’s important to have a variety of energy solutions. Solar energy won’t solve the world’sproblems; we need a variety of solutions and solar can beone of them.

Karin Kloosterman contributes to Israel21c and Green Prophet from where this article was adapted.

http://www.israel21c.org/

http://greenprophet.com/


http://www.israel21c.org/



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World's Largest Solar Energy Project Brightens California