The switch was flipped this week as California’s Ivanpah solar thermal power plant went live. The 392 megawatt concentrating solar plant (CSP) is now delivering renewables to power the equivalent of 140,000 homes in California. After a long journey lasting decades of development, fighting regulations, manoeuvring around turtle conservationists, burning birds may be the latest problem.

According to environmentalists, the heat focused from the 350,000 garage-door sized mirrors is incinerating birds that fly in the pathway of the sun’s concentrated rays. State energy officials have put out photos of birds with singed feathers from flying into what is being called the hot ‘thermal flux’ around the towers, with temperatures that can reach 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Like the solar death rays in London.

The plant is located on five square miles of the Mojave Desert, near the California / Nevada border, and is the largest CSP plant of its kind in the world. According to news reports some dozens of birds have died since the plant was turned on. I am yet to substantiate these findings with a source. But I have something to say about it. Listen up bird lovers.

Maintaining animal habitats is important for renewable energy projects but it shouldn’t be the only concern. If that same area of land were turned into homes, I can guarantee you that multiples more of songbirds would be dying from neighbourhood cats who prey on them for play.

Or if that same amount of energy was produced by the oil industry, the effects of a spill or the consequences of the industry (with leaks, fumes, greenhouse gas) would be much worse. I am not saying that we can’t learn something from this renewable energy advance, I think it’s time that we understand that there is no perpetual motion machine that is going to supply endlessly clean energy. Everything we do to feed our power needs will have a consequence and we have to weigh the pros (clean energy with the cons (singed birds).

If you want to follow the story, start here with compliance documents that Brightsource submitted last year (links to PDF).  If you jump down to the wildlife section you’ll find some quite remarkable considerations for wildlife, certainly care and regard you would NEVER EVER find in the Middle East.

::Brightsource (hat tip Nicky Blackburn)

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According to the always inquisitive Katie Fehrenbacher  over at GigaOm who managed to snag a Q&A with the company, BrightSource just doesn’t necessarily need the extra money right now. Its Ivanpah solar thermal project is already fully funded with project financing from NRG Energy and Google.

(Related: Israel’s BrightSource Still Private After IPO Withdrawal.)

Any additional funds from an IPO at this point would just have gone toward things like continued research and development, project development (other ongoing permitting work) and international expansion. And with market conditions as they are a quick cost/benefit analysis in the last days found an IPO not needed.

According to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) data, BrightSource has 13 of its huge utility scale solar thermal projects that will be shipping electrons to the California grid between 2013 and 2017 – that are now going the permitting stage.

The Israeli-birthed (Luz Rises Again as BrightSource) U.S. company is the leader of the pack with projects that will clean the U.S. grid for decades into the future, based on the original projects invented by Israeli engineers that still operate in the California desert – even though the U.S. government drove the original Luz  into bankruptcy with the unstable renewable policies of the Carter-Reagan transition.

Since every last one of these BrightSource solar thermal projects already has a Power Purchase Contract (PPA) with the California utilities for the next 20 to 25 years, (and thus certain and long term bankability) the need for additional funding in an IPO is not so great that they were willing to go for it in a down market.

The IPO was cancelled from a position of strength.

“During our IPO marketing, we did experience significant interest from potential investors in the US and internationally” Keely Wachs, senior director of corporate communications wrote to Greenprophet in an email. “We’re also seeing significant demand for our technology in international markets in addition to the strong reception received domestically over the past six years.”

So do not be alarmed next time you read news like this: news like this is not The End of Solar! As Fehrenbacher shows, the truth is simpler. Even when Solyndra actually filed for bankruptcy it was not The End of Solar! So next time you read of how any one company’s bankruptcy – or setback – or minor revised footstep – Means The End of Solar! just remember how when Netscape went bankrupt – that was the end of the internet!

Read more on BightSource:

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“We’re a U.S. company with Israeli engineering, not an Israeli company. It’s a nuance but important to get right,” Keely Wachs, senior director of corporate communications for BrightSource, wrote in an email message.

And with an American President and CEO named John Woolard running the company from Oakland, California it may be hard to guess that most BrightSource executives live in Israel. But when BrightSource pulled its IPO last week, just before its scheduled date on April 11, the company’s American identity became even more important for its existence.

BrightSource’s 392 MW Ivanpah plant in California’s Mojave Desert received a partial loan guarantee of $1.6 billion from the U.S. Department of Energy last April, on top of millions in private sector funding from big-names American companies like NRG Solar and Google.

BrightSource executives decided at the last minute that the company and the market were not ready for the intial public offering, which the company had initially capped at $250 million when it filed for the IPO with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last April.

So for the time being it will continue to rely on its government and private sector funding with the hope that eventually solar will be considered a lucrative stock that any jo-shmo would like to own. Wachs emphasized that BrightSource could have chosen to go ahead with the IPO, but cancelled it from a position of strength.

“During our IPO marketing, we did experience significant interest from potential investors in the US and internationally. We’re also seeing significant demand for our technology in international markets in addition to the strong reception received domestically over the past six years.”

But, she said, various adverse market condition–particularly in the ten days leading up to the scheduled IPO–had BrightSource executives nervous about opening the company for public stock. She cited, among other things, the Enphase (another solar company) pricing that was 46% below range, the Solar Trust bankruptcy on April 4 and the cleantech composite fall of 8.9%.

Nevertheless, BrightSource is marching ahead with several new projects, including a massive 750 MW Rio Mesa plant still waiting approval from the California Energy Comission to be built in the state’s Riverside Country. With the ability to store energy in the form of molten salt overnight and during cloudy days, and with the ability to produce many megawatts of energy more than solar photovoltaic plants, solar thermal companies like BrightSource may prove very profitable in the coming years despite the apparent setback that the IPO withdrawal seemed to mark.

“We are a well-capitalized business.  We will use our strong financial position to move the business forward as planned,” Wachs said.

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Why does Israel so lag Arab neighbors like Morocco and Egypt in its renewable energy production?

I do not understand how the nation that invented CSP solar thermal – the solar energy that now powers much of the worlds gigantic utility-scale solar plants – can be just now announcing some tiny 35 MW solar project as its “largest ever!” – and Spain’s Solaer group that is supposedly to build it; doesn’t even have a website – when Morocco is building its first 500 MW plant with international energy giant Siemens.

Can anyone tell me what’s going on? I have never lived in the Middle East region, unlike the rest of the local bloggers here at GreenProphet – perhaps I’m missing something that is rather obvious to the rest of you.

In the US, only our fossil states are as backward in renewable energy development.

The more gas and oil and coal a state has, the more feeble its renewable requirements, in something familiar to petrostates as “the Resource Curse”.

In 2010, I suggested that the Leviathan Gas Discovery Could be The Mother of All Resource Curses. At the time, I didn’t really think this could be literally true, but now I wonder.

Like those US states, Israel lags in renewable deployment. It’s first and currently only large-scale solar plant is a 5 MW facility on a kibbutz in the Negev. That is pretty backward. It’s renewable requirements are for only 10% compared with Egypt and Morocco’s 20%. Did Israel’s massive discovery of gas a few years ago turn it instantly into a petrostate?

It is not as if Israel lacks the brains to develop cutting edge solar technologies. The list is long. Israel’s companies  dominate any global awards list with with cutting edge technology innovation.

7 Solar Innovators From Israel That Could Fuel Our Planet
Pythagoras Solves Solar Energy Equation at Sears Tower

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With a 35 meter high sun-ray collection tower and about 50 mirrors positioned to direct the sun, Israel’s AORA is about to flip the switch on its latest solar power plant in Spain. The company created a huge buzz in Israel in 2009 when it was the first solar energy company to connect to the national grid. Since, it has been under the radar, and has recently emerged at the prestigious Platforma Solar Almeria in Almeria, Spain.

The new ultra-high temperature concentrating solar power (CSP) technology it is showcasing there focuses heliostats, small mirrors, onto a sun collecting turbine built on top of the “tulip” pictured above.

While the plant only produces kilowatts of electrical and thermal energy, and not megawatts like we see at CSP solar plants made by BrightSource or the CSP plant at Kuraymat, Egypt, the idea here is something kind of novel: to create small power plants around or very close to the grid, so that less power is lost along the way, in transmission.

The invention started in the labs of Prof. Jacob Karni at the Weizmann Institute in the 80s.

The company can build around wildlife corridors, a huge plus if you consider the BrightSource turtle fiasco, and there is virtually no down time for maintenance as one of many units can go offline at a time without disrupting the whole system. Other benefits include the ability to power the turbines with alternative fuel at night, when the sun’s not shining.

Regulatory hurdles, or quick sand however you want to describe bureaucrasy has prevented the company from multiplying its bright tulips all over the Holy Land.

I spoke with the CEO of AORA last week, Zev Rosenzweig and he says that a single unit would cost about half a million USD to set up, and would power about 50 homes in Europe (based on a 2 kw home), a few fewer in the US where consumption is higher. Each AORA plant generates 100 kw of electric power, and an additional 170kW thermal power.

Watch out for AORA as they flip the switch in Spain on February 7.

::AORA

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Back when, Luz became the largest solar company in the world by building solar electric generating power plants. From 1984 to 1991 Luz (which was founded in Israel) built and sold nine solar energy nine plants (SEGS I-IX) with 350 MW of capacity, enough to supply the residential needs of 540,000 people in the Los Angeles area.

Newton also invested in and was a chairman of the Board of Directors of “Electric Fuel” during its start-up period 1993-5. Electric Fuel made Zinc Air Batteries for Electric Vehicles – about 400 miles for the EV1 and about 250 miles for a Mercedes Van – and could be refueled with new zinc plates in about 10 minutes. He also made huge inroads for chartered accountants everywhere.

The post Newton Becker, a Bright Source for Solar Thermal Energy, Dies at 83 appeared first on Green Prophet.

BrightSource Energy announced this week that they could chop down the size of their giant 750 MW project in California by 200 MW and yet still make the same 4,000 gigawatt-hours a year of power they are contractually required to produce for California, by adding their proprietary SolarPlus night time storage.

The seven-plant power tower project is under a power purchase contract with Southern California Edison which supplies electricity to customers in Southern California. But BrightSource spokesman Keely Wachs told Todd Woody on Monday that by adding storage for use for several hours at a time that only six of the seven planned solar “power tower” stations will need to be built, saving some 1,280 acres of desert land.

Since land-use has become a contentious issue with some California conservationists, this should be a win-win.

(Earlier: Now 39 Tortoises Halt Phase 2 and 3 of the BrightSource Ivanpah Project)

If approved by state regulators, the amended contracts with Southern California Edison will also result in lower costs for utility customers.

The change trades on the competitive advantage of solar thermal, that it can include night time storage, which solar PV cannot.

Unlike traditional solar PV, which makes electricity directly, the various kinds of solar thermal all create heat by reflecting sunlight using mirrors, making steam to drive turbines which then generate power, just like any other thermal power such as gas, coal or nuclear. There are many designs, and improvements are constantly being made as the technology moves to utility-scale.

Even just a year or so ago, when PV was expensive, and most of these solar contracts were signed, solar thermal, using mirrors, was the cheaper option.

Making polysilicon for PV out of sand sounds cheap and easy, but it is an extremely finicky process, and so making PV was intitially an expensive, almost artisanal procedure. But, as more factories have been automated for its mass production in China, solar PV prices have now bottomed out.

(Related: Which Solar Technologies Will Have the Most Investment Appeal?)

But on the other hand, solar thermal electricity can store part of the heat it makes, for use later,because it creates heat to make power. Heat can be very efficiently stored in salt solutions (keeping almost 100% of the heat) and tapped later on demand.

For Southern California Edison, BrightSource now suggests it add a newly developed proprietary technology that can store solar heat so it can be released to create steam after dark or when electricity demand spikes, making it a more reliable electricity source than PV.

If the California regulators agree to the updated project including salt storage, this could develop into the standard for solar thermal, and solve a problem of solar intermittency. This breakthrough would be yet another way that the originally Israeli company is creating a first for world solar. BrightSource’ parent company, Luz, proved the efficacy of solar themal  in the California desert for several decades – as the world’s only solar project.

Earlier stories:

Israel’s Luz Rises Again as BrightSource for California
BrightSource Energy One Step Closer to World’s Largest Solar Plant
California Desert Tortoises Will Be Relocated To Make Room For Solar

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BrightSource Energy, the California based solar thermal energy company whose technology as innovated in Israel, and whose solar “star” was even touted by US President Barack Obama, is now in financial hot water again as its joint oil recovery project with giant energy company Chevron, appears to have incurred “significant cost overruns”, according to Reuters.

The oil recovery project, in which BrightSource’s patented solar thermal technology would be used to inject high pressure steam into oil wells to help Chevron soften the oil, would help pull out deeply embedded “heavy oil”. The company is incurring heavy financial losses of about $40.2 million, which company officials claim is $29.7 million more than “originally anticipated”.

BrightSouce, which in the past had its mega solar energy projects in California even shelved at one point due to environmental and other issues, seemed to be improving its energy image, following the US president’s endorsement, and the promise of over $1 billion in loan guarantees from the US government.

But the company may now have gotten itself into both financial and environmental trouble again by becoming involved in a project that smacks of similarity with the Alberta Tar Sands  project in which another Israeli founded company, Ormat Industries is involved in.

In filing the operating loss statement, BrightSource still believes that its solar generated steam technology can significantly help Enhanced Oil Recovery projects (EOR) like the one with Chevron. The companies were to extract the sticky black substance that many environmentalist attribute to the sad state of global warming and climate change that the plant earth is presently in. The EOR project was expected to go live this year, but unforeseeable engineering costs, and weather related events has seriously affected the financial forecast of the company.

For its part, BrightSource might better consider improving its solar thermal technology to create energy from solar sources instead to helping to extract more fossil based energy from the ground.

Read more on BrightSource  company projects:
Obama touts Israel developed Solar Company Bright Source
Bright Source Expands on Coyote Land in Nevada
Bright Source Gets a Billion
BrightSource Solar Energy Project in Mojave Desert Shelved

The post BrightSource-Chevron Joint Solar Project To Extract Heavy Oil, Suffers Losses appeared first on Green Prophet.

A fund that Al Gore’s chaired has already invested $10 million in an Israeli cleantech company – GreenRoad, a company that has a software solution to manage the gas consumption and driving safety of truck fleets. This week, the local business news in Israel is reporting that one of Gore’s funds is investing in another Israeli software-hardware solution, this time Tigo Energy for $10 million. Tigo’s solution helps maximize solar output of photovoltaic installations, promising up to 20 percent in energy efficiency improvements. The news comes hot on the heels of the Google investment in another Israeli solar product: BrightSource.

I’ve interviewed both Tigo (here) and GreenRoad (here) in the past as well as BrightSource. In the recent news, according to Globes, Tigo has raised $10 million in its third financing round, as well as a $10 million credit line from Gore’s Climate Solutions Fund.

Tigo’s COO Ran Hadar told Globes that demand is rising for its products, and that proceeds from the financing round would be used to increase production capacity and the company’s global sales and marketing network.

So far Tigo has raised $40 million and the company expects sales of about $30 million in 2011.

Its main product, “the Maximizer” can boost the power output of photovoltaic (PV) systems from residential size to utility scale systems by up to 20 percent. The company has developed a way to reduce the effects of dust, shade, and clouds on PV performance. Companies working with them report getting about a 15% improved output.

Hadar said: “Israel has 2,000 hours of sunlight a year. Our component turns PV panels into smart panels that add 400 hours of sunlight. This is real news for the industry and it charmed the people at Generation Investment, which decided that it was worthwhile to invest in us.”

To date the company has installed its PV systems at a 600-kilowatt facility in California, at a 500-kilowatt facility at Moshav Tagor in Israel and at other sites around the world.

::Globes

Read more on Tigo Energy:

Tigo Solar Energy Secures A $10 Million Investment
Solar Company Tigo Energy Announces Key Distribution Partner in US
Tigo Energy’s Solar Solution Monitors Power From The Sun

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SEC filings show BrightSource Energy Inc has raised $122.5 million in its fifth round of financing, according to Israel’s Globes.The company says it raised the capital in shares and warrants, as part of a planned $125 million offering. BrightSource Energy is now the California “parent company” of the actual “parent” – BrightSource Industries Ltd –  if you consider parenting from the generative point of view. (Luz Rises Again as BrightSource for California)

Originally, the Israeli inventors developed the solar thermal technology that has now been proven since the eighties in the California desert and is fast becoming the industry standard. The Israeli “child” company is the real father of solar thermal technology, however.

BrightSource Energy has an odd combination of investors on board, with an unusually high concentration of governments, including the renewable-friendly Norwegian government-owned StatOil’s StatoilHydro Venture, and the very green California State Teachers Retirement System, but also, oddly, the Russian government’s venture capital fund.

Other investors represent the cutting edge of cleantech you might expect: Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Google.org, and VantagePoint Venture Partners.

Yet, surprisingly, oil companies BP and Chevron round out these strange shareholder bedfellows – or maybe that is not so strange. Brightsource’s thermal technology holds promise in oil field extraction as well, because solar thermal technology is increasingly holding its own economically against natural gas. On oil fields, in desert regions, solar thermal is replacing natural gas to heat water to make electricity for site operations. In California, and in the Middle East, oil companies are trying solar to boost oil production instead of natural gas.

BrightSource operates a small pilot project in the Negev desert, and has managed to bypass the high hurdles set for utility-scale solar in California.

Its Ivanpah project is one of the very, very few among over 11 gigawatts-worth of utility-scale applications to be permitted to break ground, and though it is not yet generating electrons – and thus, money – Brightsource is now licensing its pioneering technology.

::BrightSource

Read more on BrightSource:
BrightSource Joins Last Minute Renewables Rush as Greece Heads Off EU Fines
BrightSource Gets a Billion
BrightSource Cuts World’s Largest Solar Energy Deal With SCE in California

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