Solar thermal developer BrightSource Energy has already filed a $10 million bid for the smaller of the two projects, the 500-megawatt Palen project 10 miles east of Desert Center.
Two stalled, large-scale concentrating solar power projects on public land east of the Coachella Valley are scheduled to go on the auction block Thursday as part of the bankruptcy proceedings for the projects’ developer, Solar Trust of America.
Solar thermal developer BrightSource Energy has already filed a $10 million bid for the smaller of the two projects, the 500-megawatt Palen project 10 miles east of Desert Center.
Solar Trust is also selling the 1,000-megawatt Blythe project, 8 miles west of the city of Blythe, along with two other projects it had in development, one near Ridgecrest and one in Nevada. In April, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.
The court approved the auction in May. Bids for all four projects were due Monday. Oakland-based BrightSource is best known for its 392-megawatt Ivanpah project, a concentrating solar thermal plant now under construction in the Mojave Desert, using the company’s trademark solar power towers.
The towers, which can top out at 750 feet tall, are surrounded by thousands of solar mirrors, or heliostats, which reflect heat from the sun onto a boiler at the top of the tower, turning water to steam that runs a power plant generating electricity.
The company is now working on another project, the 500-megawatt Rio Mesa plant, to be located on private land 8 miles south of Interstate 10, near Blythe. It has yet to be approved.
K Kaufmann, www.mydesert.com
