http://www.newenergyworldnetwork.com/renewable-energy-news/by-technology/solar-by-technology-renewable-energy-news/nrg-solar-becomes-lead-investor-in-brightsource%e2%80%99s-ivanpah-solar-thermal-project.html

NRG Solar, a subsidiary of NRG Energy, plans to become the lead investor in BrightSource’s solar thermal Ivanpah project in the Mojave Desert by investing up to $300m in it over the next three years.

The company has signed a letter of intent to partner with BrightSource Energy to construct, finance, own and operate what is slated to be the world’s largest solar thermal project in existence by the time it operates in 2013.
Engineering, procurement and construction contractor on the Ivanpah project, Bechtel, is another equity investor in the project, having already signed local labour agreements.
The 392MW solar project has received a $1.37bn conditional loan commitment from the US Department of Energy for a loan guarantee. It has also obtained all the federal and state permits and approvals it requires to move forwards.
At peak around 1,000 people will be employed on construction of the Ivanpah project, which has already begun, with all three phases due to be operational by midway through 2013.
Electricity produced by the Ivanpah project will be sold under multiple power purchase agreements lasting from between 20 and 25 years with Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric that will nearly double the amount of commercial solar thermal energy generated in the US.
NRG Energy CEO David Crane said, ‘The ambition and scale of Ivanpah, capitalising on California’s natural solar resource and demand for renewable energy, shows how far we have come in scaling up solar generation.
‘NRG’s experience operating and owning power plants, coupled with its unmatched understanding of the solar power markets makes it an ideal partner for the Ivanpah solar electric generating system’ said John Woolard, CEO of BrightSource Energy.
Ivanpah is located approximately 50 miles northwest of Needles in California and around five miles from the Nevada border on federal land managed by the US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management.
In June 2010, NRG Solar agreed to purchase a portfolio of nine solar development projects in California and Arizona from US Solar, an affiliate of Arclight Capital Partners, doubling the company’s development pipeline to 1.15GW.
NRG currently owns a 21MW photovoltaic facility in Blythe and will jointly own three more similar facilities in California under a partnership with Eurus Energy America that when completed in mid-2011 will generate 45MW.