Recently, it was mentioned that BrightSource is facing a possible regulatory delay and has been attending hearings on how to streamline the approval process.

It was mentioned that the company's solar project is one of the first in line to seek approval from the BLM, so there is a lot of new territory to cover, and both the California Energy Commission (CEC) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are resource constrained.

Considering this, even as it seems there is a need for a feasible approach to sort this and push the industry forward as quickly as possible, BrightSource Energy's spokesperson says all of the parties involved in the regulatory process are equally committed to bringing more renewable resources online and protecting the desert's natural heritage.

"In late October, the CEC commissioners approved a plan to have the review process for our first 100 MW plant at the Ivanpah site completed by Fall 2009.  This is right in line with our schedule with our first 100 MW project at Ivanpah, which includes beginning construction in Fall 2009.  We're excited by the prospect of building California's first large-scale solar plant in nearly three decades," the spokesperson told CSPToday.com.

In September last year, when BrightSource Energy had filed an Application For Construction (AFC) with the CEC for development of a 400 MW solar power plant site, then it was shared that it was the first AFC to be filed in California since 1989 for the construction of solar power plants. BrightSource had shared plans to build three separate solar plants on a site in California i.e. Ivanpah, about five miles southwest of Primm, Nevada, located on federally owned land administered by the BLM. BrightSource had applied to the BLM for a right-of-way grant to use the land for its solar power complex, which will consist of two 100 MW solar power plants and one 200 MW solar power plant.

The BLM manages more land – 258 million surface acres – than any other Federal agency. It is said that the BLM has received some 200 applications to build solar plants on federal land in recent years. In California alone, there are 80 proposals involving 700,000 acres.

A couple of months back, the BLM stated that it will accept additional applications for solar energy projects and process them with the 125 already submitted. In response to public interest in solar energy development, the BLM shared that it plans to continue accepting applications for future potential solar development on the public lands. The BLM would process these applications, while continuing to identify issues during public scoping currently underway for the programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS). The BLM, which had previously advised that it was temporarily suspending acceptance of new solar applications pending completion of the PEIS, shared in July that it will accept additional applications for solar energy projects.

But recently, Greg Miller, the renewable energy program manager in the BLM's California office, reportedly had said, "It's a land rush. The 80 [California proposals] I'm mentioning are just those who are first in line. We've got another 40 or more on top of that [who] are betting the company in front of them will lose out."

It is highlighted that no project has yet made it through the BLM's permitting process. Overwhelmed, the agency tried this summer to put a moratorium on new applications.

"I don't see us putting 80 solar projects on BLM land, there's no way. I don't see us putting 30," Miller said, according to csmonitor.com.

Even as the combination of environmental concerns and persistently higher prices for commodity fuels has forced a number of states to adopt Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) that require their utilities to purchase a minimum percentage power from renewable energy sources, there are some hurdles, too.

Solar companies proposing large power plants in the Mojave Desert are facing opposition from conservationists. 

For instance, John Hiatt, a Las Vegas-based environmental activist, according to csmonitor.com said, "If there were just one [proposed plant], we could deal with that. But we are looking at essentially every valley that is not protected as a national monument or park as being a potential site for solar. It will be the industrialisation of the Mojave Desert."

It is being mentioned that BrightSource's application says all vegetation within the fields of mirrors "will be cut to the soil surface to reduce the risk of fire." Hiatt says that will cause long-term soil damage. On the other hand, it is being said that BrightSource's application outlines a 20-point proposal for mitigating impacts on tortoises, including relocating them from burrows. The company also plans to offset the loss of habitat by paying to set aside an equal amount of land elsewhere.

Regarding a call for the fast-track review and approval of permits for environmentally friendly solar energy plants on federal lands, BrightSource firstly acknowledged that the world's natural wildlife and habitat must be protected. 

"State and federal environmental review processes should never compromise this central principal.  Having robust and stringent environmental review processes is vital to this goal." 

"However, we do think that there are areas where we can create efficiencies in the integration of state and federal processes.  We're cutting a new trail in this regard and all parties involved, including BrightSource, environmental groups and government entities have demonstrated a commitment to achieving these two mutual goals."

BrightSource's 400MW Ivanpah Solar Power Complex

Three quick facts about BrightSource Energy's solar thermal power plants:

1.     The Ivanpah Solar Power Complex that BrightSource is building near the California/Nevada border in the Mojave Desert will power 250,000 homes and reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by over 500,000 tons per year.

2.     BrightSource's 400MW Ivanpah Solar Power Complex will produce more electricity in one year than the total of all of the residential solar installations currently installed in the US. [Note: Ivanpah is the only utility-scale solar project currently under development in the US that has reached this advanced permitting stage.]

3.     If BrightSource Energy plants were built on less than two percent of the land in the Mojave Desert, they would provide enough power for all of the homes in California and reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by over 30 million tons per year.

There have quite significant developments in the recent past in the sector, especially related to emerging technologies. For instance, in case of Ausra's technology, heat is focused on tubes of water to create steam that drives large power turbines, generating clean, reliable electricity and high-temperature, "process" steam for industrial applications.

Though BrightSource spokesperson didn't comment on other technologies, he said BrightSource's focus is on creating the world's most cost-effective solar plants.

"From our team's experience building the SEGS plants, we found that the Luz Power Tower technology combines the most efficient methods for solar collection and energy distribution, combined with the lowest capital costs.  The result," the spokesperson said.

The solar fields for the SEGS plants built by Luz International utilise long rows of curved glass mirrors to heat synthetic oil, which is piped to a heat exchanger to produce steam at about 375° C.  This steam is used to drive a steam turbine to produce electricity. By contrast, the LPT 550 technology uses thousands of small flat glass mirrors (known as heliostats) to focus sunlight on a solar boiler located on top of a tower.  The sunlight heats steam directly to a temperature of about 550° C and the steam is used to drive a steam turbine to produce electricity.

BrightSource's LPT technology has several significant advantages over other solar thermal technologies: 

a) unlike most solar thermal technologies, LPT plants produce steam directly from solar energy,

b) the steam has a much higher temperature (550° C vs. 380° C), which results in more efficient operation,

c) the mirrors that reflect the sunlight move in two dimensions to follow the sun during the day and during the seasons (other technologies only move in one dimension),

d) the glass used in the mirrors is less expensive because it is flat, not curved, and

e) LPT solar fields can be installed on uneven or sloping ground.