Abengoa Agrees to Buy BrightSource Stake in Solar Thermal Plant

Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) — Abengoa SA, the largest developer of
solar-thermal power plants, agreed to buy out its partner
BrightSource Energy Inc. in a planned project in California.

Abengoa will become the sole owner of the Palen Solar
Energy Generating Station and will scale down what was initially
proposed as a 500-megawatt project, the Seville, Spain-based
company said today in a statement. Terms of the sale weren’t
disclosed.

The companies had planned to build two so-called power
towers. Solar-thermal plants use mirrors on the ground to focus
the sun’s rays on a boiler atop a tall structure, producing
steam that drives a turbine.

California regulators in September recommended approving
one tower. Abengoa now plans to add a thermal-storage system
that uses molten salt to retain heat, so the plant will continue
to generate electricity after sundown.

California is seeking to produce at least one-third of its
electricity from renewable sources by 2020 and has mandated that
its three main utilities have 1.3 gigawatts of storage capacity
by then.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Justin Doom in New York at
jdoom1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net
Will Wade, Robin Saponar

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