BrightSource Industries (Israel) parent company BrightSource Energy Inc. has signed a contract with Southern California Edison (SCE) for 1,300 megawatts of clean solar thermal power, enough to serve nearly 845,000 homes. The California Public Utilities Commission has to approve the deal.
BrightSource will develop seven projects altogether, with the first 100-megawatt plant due to come online in early 2013. The company said that this "was the largest energy procurement contract ever signed with a utility."
BrightSource did not disclose the size of the new contract, but its scale can be judged by the fact that it will generate over a tenth of Israel's total annual electricity production of 11,000 megawatts. The company hopes to complete construction of all the power plants by 2017, at which point they will produce 3.7 billion kilowatt-hours of clean energy and avoid more than two million tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
On the basis of an estimate price of $0.01 per kilowatt/hour, revenue from the project could reach $250-350 million a year. BrightSource will invest several billion dollars in the project, and will have to raise a substantial amount of money for this purpose.
BrightSource Industries (Israel) was formerly called Luz II. It was renamed in December, 2008 in light of the connection with its parent company.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 11, 2009
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