BrightSource Energy, developer of large-scale solar plants, has contracted with engineering giant Bechtel to build a 440-megawatt solar power station in California's Mojave Desert.
According to California-based BrightSource, the Ivanpah Solar Energy Generating System, when fully operational, will nearly double the amount of solar thermal electricity now produced in the United States.
The complex, consisting of three separate plants, will displace more than 450,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually, equivalent to the elimination of at least 75,000 cars, BrightSource said.
The three Ivanpah plants are to be built in the Mojave Desert near the California-Nevada border on federal land controlled by the Bureau of Land Management. Construction is scheduled to begin early 2010, following final permitting by the California Energy Commission and the Bureau of Land Management.
Power from the facility will be sold under separate contracts to Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and to Southern California Edison. BrightSource's contracts with PG&E and SCE total 2.6 gigawatts.
Rather than a photovoltaic-based system, BrightSource will use a solar-thermal installation consisting of flat mirrors to reflect sunlight to a central tower, where the concentrated heat creates steam to drive a turbine. This "fully integrated" approach, the company said in its statement, "takes advantage of high operating efficiencies and low capital costs to provide reliable and low-cost carbon-free energy."
Two smaller plants, each with three towers and producing 100 megawatts, will take up 850 square miles. The third and larger plant, consisting of four towers, will produce 200 megawatts and require 1,600 acres.
California-based Bechtel will provide engineering, procurement and construction services for the project. Bechtel Enterprises, the company's development and financing arm, will also become an equity investor in all three plants. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Bechtel, founded in 1898, is better known for building power plants that run on coal, natural gas or nuclear energy. More recently, the company has delved into solar plants, including several in Southern California developed in the 1980s by one of the founders of BrightSource, founded nearly 30 years ago.
"Our experience with Bechtel is that they have been a tremendous engineering company, with great engineers," said John Woolard, chief executive officer of BrightSource, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. "When Bechtel signs up for a project, they deliver."
BrightSource estimates that the project will generate approximately 1,000 jobs at the peak of construction and 86 permanent jobs, with total economic benefits of $3 billion.
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