Solar thermal power plant developer BrightSource Energy Inc. has signed a follow-on preliminary agreement with Coyote Springs Land Company to provide sites for up 960 megawatts of solar energy farms for the California and Nevada markets. The companies signed a deal in March to provide sites for up to 600 megawatts of solar power. The sites are northeast of Las Vegas.
The Coyote Springs project is part of BrightSource Energy’s strategy to diversify sites for solar energy farms in California, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. The company's first, and flagship, project, in Ivanpah, California, is in the final permitting stages, with construction due to begin in early 2010.
BrightSource Energy president and CEO John Woolard said, “The Coyote Springs Lands are a great addition to our growing and diverse portfolio of sites suitable for solar thermal projects.
BrightSource Energy noted that the new deal expands the Coyote Springs site to twelve square miles on private property near transmission lines. The broader development site has already received environmental permits from the Bureau of Land Management, US Fish and Wildlife, and various other federal, state and county agencies.
The deal is good news for BrightSource Energy, which a few days ago announced that it was closing a site at Broadwell Dry Lake in the western Mojave Desert planned for a solar energy farm because of objections by environmentalist groups. The company said that the site was just one of many for which the company was seeking permits for its solar energy farms, and that the loss of the site was immaterial and was a gesture to the environmental organizations.
Sources inform ''Globes'' that BrightSource Energy is seeking partners in India and China in order to set up projects there.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 23, 2009
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