November 3, 2008

BrightSource Energy pushes for faster review of proposed Californian solar-energy complex

LOS ANGELES

A company backed by investors linked to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is pressing regulators to speed up a review of its proposed $2-billion solar-energy complex.

It warns that delays would send a chilling signal to the emerging green power industry.

The California Energy Commission staff opposes the move, depicting it as an end run that could break apart a precedent-setting review of the planned solar site near the Mojave Desert Preserve.

At the centre of the dispute is a project widely viewed as a potential breakthrough in large-scale U.S. solar development.

BrightSource Energy is seeking permission to build three solar-power plants on nearly 15 square kilometres of federal land along the Nevada state line — the first ever on Bureau of Land Management property.

The BrightSource project is one of dozens seeking to claim more than 2,600 square kilometres of federal land in California for solar-power generation, an area larger than the Hawaiian island of Maui.

With the potential to be the first large-scale solar plant on BLM property, the complex review is being closely watched since it will set the stage for others that follow.

In documents filed with the state, BrightSource says it should have received approval this month but a decision might not come until early 2010.

On that schedule, which would delay the start of construction, the company couldn’t meet contracts to begin delivering power to the state’s largest utility, PG&E Corp., in mid-2011.

BrightSource is “tremendously concerned” about the prospect of delays and warns that a sluggish pace in reaching a decision could send “a chilling signal to large-scale solar developers and their investors,” according to documents filed by company subsidiaries with the state.

Could California’s green energy revolution lose power?

The company says the commission, whose five members are appointed by the governor, needs to “send the right signal ... that California welcomes and supports” solar investment.

The company wants a schedule that would produce a decision by next summer.

The Associated Press reported earlier this month that a Schwarzenegger relative, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and his former environmental secretary, Terry Tamminen, are part of a private investment group that could score a lucrative payoff if regulators approve the BrightSource complex.

Both are senior advisers for VantagePoint Venture Partners, which has a multimillion-dollar stake in BrightSource.

The personal connections have raised questions about possible favourable treatment for a project; the company has called the joint state-federal review transparent.

Associated Press

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