In Tuesday’s New York Times, I write about California Senator Dianne Feinstein’s move to ban renewable energy production in two proposed national monuments in the Mojave Desert: AMBOY, Calif. — Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation in Congress on Monday to protect a million acres of the Mojave Desert in California by scuttling some 13 big [...]
Archive for the ‘BrightSource Energy’ Category
Solar showdown in the Mojave
Posted in alternative energy, BrightSource Energy, climate change, endangered species, enviro startups, environment, global warming, green policy, green startups, PG&E, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, Tessera Solar, tagged BrightSource Energy, desert tortoise, Goldman Sachs, Mojave Desert, Senator Dianne Feinstein, solar energy, solar power plants, Tessera Solar, wildlife on December 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Paging Dr. Chu, venture capitalist
Posted in alternative energy, BrightSource Energy, climate change, enviro startups, environment, global warming, green financing, green policy, green startups, investment tax credit, tagged BrightSource Energy, Department of Energy, green tech startups, green technology, Silicon valley, venture capital on October 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
photo: Stefano Paltera/DOE In my new Green State column on Grist (I’m stealing the above headline from Grist executive editor Russ Walker), I take a look at the state of green tech venture investing gleaned from a recent seminar at the University of California, Berkeley: Silicon Valley is by nature an optimistic place. After all, [...]
Solar farms face drought as water war breaks out
Posted in Abengoa Solar, alternative energy, BrightSource Energy, climate change, energy, enviro startups, environment, global warming, renewable energy, solar energy, Solar Millennium, solar power plants, Tessera Solar, tagged BrightSource Energy, renewable energy, Solar Millennium, solar power, solar power plants, Tessera Solar, water on September 30, 2009 | 4 Comments »
image: Tessera Solar In a feature published in today’s New York Times, I look at a water war breaking out in the desert Southwest over plans to build dozens of large-scale solar power projects on hundreds of thousands of acres of land: AMARGOSA VALLEY, Nev. — In a rural corner of Nevada reeling from the [...]
Home market dead, desert developer goes solar
Posted in alternative energy, BrightSource Energy, climate change, enviro capitalism, enviro startups, environment, green startups, PG&E, solar energy, solar power plants, Southern California Edison, tagged BrightSource Energy, Coyote Springs Land Company, Harvey Whittemore, Nevada, solar energy, solar power plants on September 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Photo: BrightSource Energy In today’s New York Times, I write about how Harvey Whittemore — one of Nevada’s biggest power brokers and a confident of Senate majority leader Harry Reid — has responded to the housing crash by leasing desert land at his mega-home development to BrightSource Energy for a 960-megawatt solar farm complex. What [...]
Green tech changes venture capital game
Posted in alternative energy, BrightSource Energy, energy, energy efficiency, enviro capitalism, enviro startups, environment, global warming, green chemicals, green financing, green policy, Nanosolar, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, Solyndra, Tesla Motors, the green economy, tagged Alan Salzman Mohr Davidow Ventures, green technology, Khosla Ventures, Marianne Wu, Silicon valley, VantagePoint Venture Capital, venture capitalists, Vinod Khosla on September 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
photo: eSolar In Sunday’s Los Angeles Times, I write about how the rise of green technology is changing the way Silicon Valley venture capitalists do business: Silicon Valley venture capitalists have always been about inventing the future — taking a wild idea, nurturing it with cash and creativity and giving birth to new products, companies [...]
Bechtel jumps into solar power plant business
Posted in alternative energy, BrightSource Energy, PG&E, solar energy, solar power plants, Southern California Edison, tagged Bechtel, BrightSource Energy, Ivanpah, solar energy, solar power, solar power plants on September 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Photo: BrightSource Energy In another sign that old-line corporate giants see solar power as big business, engineering and construction giant Bechtel has signed a deal with BrightSource Energy to build the solar developer’s first solar power plant, a 440-megawatt project in Southern California on the Nevada border. As I write in Wednesday’s New York Times: [...]
Chevron’s solar-powered oil field
Posted in alternative energy, BrightSource Energy, energy, environment, renewable energy, solar energy, tagged BrightSource Energy, Chevron, oil extraction, solar steam on August 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
photo: BrightSource Energy Chevron and solar developer BrightSource Energy have revealed a deal for a solar steam plant that is being built in an oil field in California. As I wrote in The New York Times this week: BrightSource Energy has broken ground on a 29-megawatt solar steam plant at a Chevron oil field in [...]
Prying open the black box of green energy economics
Posted in alternative energy, BrightSource Energy, energy, enviro startups, environment, PG&E, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, tagged BrightSource Energy, PG&E, solar energy, solar power plants on August 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In Monday’s New York Times’ Green Inc. blog, I take a look at two recently approved solar energy contracts in California that offer a rare look at the economics of large-scale solar power plants: California regulators have approved contracts for more than 8,600 megawatts of renewable energy, to be generated mostly by big solar power [...]
Race begins for $3b to fund green energy projects
Posted in alternative energy, BrightSource Energy, enviro startups, environment, eSolar, green policy, green tech, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, Stirling Energy Systems, Tessera Solar, tagged BrightSource Energy, eSolar, NextEra Energy, solar power plants, Stirling Energy Systems, Tessera Solar, U.S. Department of Energy on July 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
photo: eSolar The U.S. Department of Energy on Friday began accepting applications for at least $3 billion in direct funding of renewable energy power plant projects. The funding, part of the federal stimulus package, is in lieu of a 30 percent investment tax credit that green energy developers can take on their projects. Given that [...]
Texas’ first Big Solar project, PG&E’s deal with NRG/eSolar
Posted in alternative energy, Ausra, BrightSource Energy, environment, eSolar, PG&E, renewable energy, San Diego Gas & Electric, solar energy, solar power plants, Southern California Edison, tagged Ausra, BrightSource Energy, CPS Energy, eSolar, NRG, PG&E, Stirling Energy Systems, Tessera Solar on June 25, 2009 | 3 Comments »
photo: Tessera Solar When it comes to renewable energy, Texas has been all about Big Wind. But this week the Lone Star State took on its first Big Solar project when San Antonio utility CPS Energy signed a 27-megawatt deal with Tessera Solar. Houston-based Tessera is the solar farm developer for Stirling Energy Systems, which [...]
