2.6 GW of Concentrated Solar Power Capacity to be Built in California

Some time ago California passed legislation that requires the state’s power utility companies to get 20% of their power from renewable sources by 2010.  This has created a massive opportunity for companies with solar power generation technology.  I blogged about a Spanish company that built and is building concentrated solar power (CSP) generation facilities near Seville and well as US projects in California and Nevada. 

A California company, BrightSource Energy, has signed contracts with Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) and Southern California Edison (SCE) for 1.31 GW and 1.3 GW of solar power generation capacity, respectively.  BrightSource’s technical team includes engineers who built the SEGS solar-thermal power plants in California in the 1980s. Both SCE and PG&E will purchase electricity from these power plants, which will be owned and operated by BrightSource.  BrightSource plans to build the first 100-megawatt power plant in the Mojave Desert near Ivanpah, Calif. The first project could come online by 2013. BrightSource expects to complete the rest of the power projects within six to seven years.

BrightSource Energy has just won a project with Chevron to use its solar technology to produce steam for industrial purposes, but not for power generation, in central California.
Geoff Zeiss

Geoff Zeiss

Geoff Zeiss has more than 20 years experience in the geospatial software industry and 15 years experience developing enterprise geospatial solutions for the utilities, communications, and public works industries. His particular interests include the convergence of BIM, CAD, geospatial, and 3D. In recognition of his efforts to evangelize geospatial in vertical industries such as utilities and construction, Geoff received the Geospatial Ambassador Award at Geospatial World Forum 2014. Currently Geoff is Principal at Between the Poles, a thought leadership consulting firm. From 2001 to 2012 Geoff was Director of Utility Industry Program at Autodesk Inc, where he was responsible for thought leadership for the utility industry program. From 1999 to 2001 he was Director of Enterprise Software Development at Autodesk. He received one of ten annual global technology awards in 2004 from Oracle Corporation for technical innovation and leadership in the use of Oracle. Prior to Autodesk Geoff was Director of Product Development at VISION* Solutions. VISION* Solutions is credited with pioneering relational spatial data management, CAD/GIS integration, and long transactions (data versioning) in the utility, communications, and public works industries. Geoff is a frequent speaker at geospatial and utility events around the world including Geospatial World Forum, Where 2.0, MundoGeo Connect (Brazil), Middle East Spatial Geospatial Forum, India Geospatial Forum, Location Intelligence, Asia Geospatial Forum, and GITA events in US, Japan and Australia. Geoff received Speaker Excellence Awards at GITA 2007-2009.

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