And financing will be especially hard for small start-ups like BrightSource, SolarReserve and eSolar.
FORBES: Solar Thermal Hopefuls Make Their Case, Battle For Financing
Whereas being extremely big remains optional for photovoltaics, for thermal-solar companies such as BrightSource it is a must.
ECONOMIST: Some solar plants need to be big; most of them don��t
Two other deals that had been expected, from aluminum processor Aleris Corp. and solar-technology company BrightSource Energy Inc.
BrightSource is hoping to start construction in August on a 400-megawatt project called Ivanpah, in the Mojave Desert.
FORBES: Solar Thermal Hopefuls Make Their Case, Battle For Financing
Among those projects is the Brightsource Ivanpah project, a 450-foot-fall solar power tower located in the Mojave Desert.
Several companies have pulled their IPOs over the past year, including solar thermal power plant builder BrightSource Energy.
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Now BrightSource (and others) use huge arrays of mirrors to direct sunlight to a single spot high on a tower.
FORBES: Solar Thermal Hopefuls Make Their Case, Battle For Financing
How is the power generated by BrightSource Energy transmitted to these users?
Solar-thermal company BrightSource Energy Inc. pulled its high-profile IPO citing market conditions.
This allows BrightSource's plants to deliver energy even after dark, and gives utilities and grid operators more flexibility than solar power usually provides.
BrightSource can point to its SEGS experience and the fact that the engineering firm Bechtel is helping design and build its Ivanpah project.
FORBES: Solar Thermal Hopefuls Make Their Case, Battle For Financing
This month, in the Mojave Desert, a company called BrightSource plans to break ground on a revolutionary new type of solar power plant.
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BrightSource hopes that in time its technology will prove sufficiently efficient and reliable to overcome the disadvantage of having to raise so much capital.
ECONOMIST: Some solar plants need to be big; most of them don��t
BrightSource projects that the site will create 1000 jobs at the peak of construction, as well as 86 full-time jobs after construction has been completed.
BrightSource was founded in 2004 by American-Israeli pioneer Arnold Goldman, whose Luz International built nine solar thermal power plants in the Mojave Desert in the 1980s and 1990s.
FORBES: Reading the fine print of BrightSource's $250 million IPO
Aleris postponed its offering and BrightSource withdrew, citing market conditions.
BrightSource Energy, an energy company based in Oakland, California, has signed a deal with Southern California Edison, a utility, to implement a system that stores energy in molten salt.
BrightSource generates electricity using an approach called concentrated solar power, in which computer-controlled mirrors, known as heliostats, focus the sun's heat to boil water and turn a steam turbine.
In 2007, Chevron-Texaco's venture capital arm bought significant stakes in two solar energy companies: BrightSource Energy, a developer of utility-scale solar plants, and Konarka Technologies, a developer of photovoltaic materials.
The whole industry, of course, is waiting for Department of Energy loan guarantees (like the one BrightSource got), and they will certainly help if and when they do come through.
FORBES: Solar Thermal Hopefuls Make Their Case, Battle For Financing
Whether SolarCity has broken the so-called solar curse that has seen several solar manufacturers file for bankrupt and one high-prolife company, BrightSource Energy, pull its IPO this year, remains to be seen.
And while Solyndra is shutting its doors, companies like SunPower, First Solar, and Brightsource Energy, which also received loan guarantees and other support from the federal government, are industry leading success stories.
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Despite its impressive pipeline of projects and prominent investors, BrightSource acknowledged in the filing that its viability turns on the completion and operation of Ivanpah, which will deploy 170, 000 heliostats around three towers.
FORBES: Reading the fine print of BrightSource's $250 million IPO
FORBES: Solar Thermal Hopefuls Make Their Case, Battle For Financing
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