Even while some of the huge solar thermal plants being built in the deserts are hitting their milestones, others are facing hurdles due to transmission line delays and cost concerns. Meanwhile solar panel farms, particularly of utility scale, reached a record in 2012. Read more »
GlassPoint Solar just raised $26 million in venture capital and built a pilot project to prove that its solar steam equipment could help oil companies pry loose of heavy crude and make it easier to extract. Read more »
Solar thermal company BrightSource is actually looking to raise $130 million, which is another $50 million over the amount it announced last month. The company makes solar thermal power plants which use mirrors and a boiler to produce electricity. Read more »
California regulators approved some — but not all — of the power contracts that Southern California Edison wants to have with BrightSource Energy in a compromise that they say will provide the state’s residents with more affordable solar power in the run long. Read more »
The leading solar thermal developer BrightSource has raised a massive round of $80 million in private equity. It’s a rare move these days that a cleantech startup can raise that much money, but BrightSource has diligently been scaling up Ivanpah, its inaugural farm near Las Vegas. Read more »
Over the past year, BrightSource Energy has touted the importance of using energy storage for its solar power plants. And no wonder. California regulators are looking at approving three of five deals between BrightSource and a utility partly because they will benefit from using energy storage. Read more »
This is what it feels like inside Ivanpah, the world’s largest solar thermal farm under construction. We drive along the solar mirror fields, take an elevator to the top of one of the 450-foot towers, and peek inside the assembly building at. Read more »
From nine stories up the 450 foot tower at the Ivanpah solar thermal farm, the tens of thousands of mirrors look like metallic chiclets, and the workers like Doozers walking amongst them. The first of its kind solar site is in a full construction boom. Read more »
The story behind why solar thermal company BrightSource Energy pulled its IPO: basically because it could. Read more »
An 180-mile drive takes me through the farm belt of California to Coalinga, where Chevron runs an old oil field that uses steam to boost its production. It operates a demonstration project, completed last fall, that uses sun’s energy instead of natural gas to produce steam. Read more »
It’s not meant to be after all. Solar power plant developer BrightSource Energy, plans to withdraw its plan to go public because of poor market conditions, the company said Wednesday night. Read more »
Brightsource Energy could go public as early as Thursday on the Nasdaq, and with that move the solar power plant developer will be making history. Read more »
The kind of flat solar mirrors that BrightSource Energy is erecting in California’s Mojave Desert run 7.2 meters by 10.5 meters. The kind that Saul Griffith is working on stretches all 5 centimeter by 5 centimeter and sit on trackers that are no taller than a toothpick. Read more »
Solar thermal company BrightSource has set the price range for its planned IPO at $21 to $23 per share for its 6.9 million shares. The company, which first filed for an IPO last April, could raise $182.51 million when it makes its market debut. Read more »
The solar industry has begun 2012 with some trepidation, with many on the warpath to cut costs and reduce output. These moves give the market a chance to reduce inventories and get production more in sync with demand. But recovery will likely come slowly. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The California Energy Commission is scheduled to consider whether to take on the role of licensing photovoltaic power plants, an authority that usually rests with local governments such as counties and cities. The decision could greatly expand its authority to shape the state’s solar energy development. Read more »
After spending five years to draw up the plan and secure construction permits and a fat federal loan guarantee, Abengoa Solar cleared a final hurdle Thursday when California regulators approved its contract to sell that power to Pacific Gas and Electric. Read more »
Roughly a month after securing a federal loan to build its first solar farm in the U.S., SolarReserve has raised $27 million in equity, according to a government filing. The company will need the funds to complete the solar power plant and work on additional projects. Read more »
Chevron officially started up its solar-powered oil recovery facility in Coalinga, California on Monday. Here’s a video and photos of the plant, which uses tech from BrightSource. Read more »
As energy use by the U.S. military grows — the Department of Defense (DoD) uses 300,000 barrels of oil every day — the conversation about how the military can consume cleaner power continues to grow, too. One potentially good fit could be concentrating solar photovoltaic technology. Read more »
A first-of-its-kind, massive solar thermal farm that uses mirrors to tap into the sun’s heat, is under construction in the desert in California, a short drive from Las Vegas. In a rare opportunity I got a chance to take a tour. Here are my photos. Read more »
Infinia, a solar startup which is using Stirling engines to produce solar power, is looking to raise $25 million in funding, and has closed $6 million of that round according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Read more »
A controversy has emerged at the California Energy Commission over whether the commission should have authority to issue permits for photovoltaic power plants – projects that use solar panels. Tomorrow, the commission will consider a developer’s request for the commission to do just that. Read more »
Yet another massive solar thermal farm in the California desert is ditching the thermal part and opting for solar panels. Solar Trust, which has been developing a 1 GW solar farm in California, announced it will use panels instead and give up $2.1B of federal help. Read more »
Adding energy storage is becoming vogue for concentrating solar thermal power projects, particularly when it’s facing intense pressure to reduce costs. BrightSource Energy said Wednesday it, too, will offer an energy storage option to its power plant design. Read more »
The second quarter brought a slew of greentech developments: We saw near-record investment in utility-scale clean energy projects but falling valuations for clean-energy stocks; big investments in solar thermal projects but struggling markets for solar photovoltaic systems; and rising private equity green investment while green VC took ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
As key programs from the stimulus package draw to a close, we look at how wind and solar power plant projects compete for same pots of money. The scores: solar gets more loan guarantees while wind gets more grants. Read more »
The DOE has been getting the remainder of its loan guarantees out the door at record speed in time to beat the program’s sunset on Sept. 30 of this year. On Tuesday the DOE announced almost $2 billion in loan guarantees for two solar thermal projects. Read more »
On Friday BrightSource Energy received approval from the Bureau of Land Management to restart the part of its Ivanpah Solar power plant project that was suspended in April of this year in order to reassess the project’s impact on desert tortoises. Read more »
General Electric is a major wind turbine maker and has announced big plans in the past year to tackle the solar market. But it may be the company’s strategy to expand its natural gas power plant equipment business that could be a significant driver of renewable energy. Read more »
Solar company BrightSource says it employs between 60 and 100 biologists at any time to make sure animals in the desert surrounding its inaugural solar plant Ivanpah are unharmed. A group of environmentalists have been protesting the plant, and part of the construction was temporarily halted. Read more »
The biggest cleantech news of last week hit the wires late afternoon on Friday: Solar thermal developer BrightSource Energy filed for a $250 million IPO. Here’s the nitty-gritty of BrightSource’s financials, PPAs, and partner deals, via BrightSource’s S-1 by the numbers: Read more »
BrightSource Energy and French power giant Alstom have formed a partnership aimed at building solar-thermal power plants in a ring around the Mediterranean. In terms of geography, if not scale, the plan echoes the scheme of the Desertec Initiative, the mega-giant of solar-thermal projects. Read more »
Cogenra has developed a concentrating PV system with a heat harvester to produce electricity and heat water. The company is one of a growing number of hybrid system developers vying for generous incentives from states such as California. Read more »
PVT Solar, which is developing a way to capture heat from a solar-panel rooftop system for heating water and homes, has raised a series B round of $13.7 million and also brought in a new CEO, Vikas Desai, the company plans to announce Tuesday. Read more »
Solar thermal player BrightSource has raised another $26 million of its previously raised round, and reportedly has moved closer to an IPO by hiring Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. Will the solar thermal leader hit the public markets in 2011? Read more »
The federal Bureau of Land Management will be stamping its final approval on a series of giant solar energy projects in California over the next two months, marking 2010 as the year when the state allows its desert to bloom with mirrors to produce electricity. Read more »
It should come as no surprise that the recently launched California incentive program to promote solar water heaters has led to a boom. SunReports, for one, on Wednesday unveiled a package of monitoring device and service for solar hot water systems designed for business customers. Read more »
BrightSource Energy is close to securing approval from the California Energy Commission for its first commercial project to build a solar thermal power plant, and it’s lined up a hefty federal loan guarantee. Is it time for it to go public? Read more »
August is turning out to be a critical month for concentrating solar thermal developers. The California Energy Commission issued recommendations for not one, but three projects over the past week, for a whopping total of 1.6 GW. uire Read more »
