POWERBROKER BECHTEL TO BUILD SOLAR POWER PLANT

Bechtel to Build Solar Energy Plant in California
Todd Woody, September 8, 2009 (NY Times)

"Bechtel, the global engineering and construction giant, has jumped into the solar power plant business in a deal with a developer to build a 440-megawatt energy complex in California…[Bechtel’s participation gives the solar power plant sector new credibility.]

"The agreement…calls for Bechtel’s development and finance arm, Bechtel Enterprises, to take an equity stake in the [BrightSource Energy] solar project known as the Ivanpah Solar Electricity Generating System…[where] three solar power stations will deliver electricity to Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison…"

Schematic of the unique BrightSource Energy solar power tower plant concept. (click to enlarge)

"Ivanpah is the first large-scale solar power plant to undergo regulatory review in the United States in nearly two decades, and the selection of Bechtel as BrightSource’s engineering, procurement and construction contractor is considered a significant step in obtaining financing needed to build the project…

"BrightSource has signed contracts to supply more than 2,600 megawatts of solar electricity to the two utilities. Terms of the Bechtel investment and the construction agreement were not disclosed but Nathaniel Bullard, a solar analyst at the market research firm New Energy Finance, estimated that a solar thermal to build a power plant of Ivanpah’s size would cost about $2 billion."

Bechtel's pedigree puts it in the Halliburton class of coroporations. (click to enlarge)

"Construction of the solar power plants, which use a [solar power tower] technology that has not been deployed on a commercial scale, is expected to begin in 2010.

"BrightSource currently operates a six-megawatt demonstration plant in Israel that deploys fields of mirrors called heliostats to focus the sun on a water-filled boiler that sits atop a tower. The intense heat creates steam to drive an electricity-generating turbine…"