Oakland-based BrightSource Energy seeks to raise up to $182.5 million in IPO

Mercury News ^ | 3/21/12 | Dana Hull

[NormsRevenge]

Solar thermal technology startup BrightSource Energy hopes to raise $182.5 million in a long-awaited initial public stock offering, according to an amended S-1 filed with the SEC Wednesday.

The Oakland-based company plans to issue 6.9 million shares, .. at a price between $21 to $23 per share. ..

BrightSource uses mirrors to concentrate the sun and turn turbines that generate electricity. It's most advanced project is the massive Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System currently under construction on federal land in California's Mojave Desert. When completed next year, Ivanpah will be the largest solar thermal power plant in the world, generating enough electricity for about 140,000 homes.

NRG Solar invested $300 million in the Ivanpah project, and Google (GOOG) invested $168 million. .. BrightSource was also awarded a $1.6 billion loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy.

...

The company had 365 full-time employees as of the end of last year, mostly in Oakland and Israel. CEO John Woolard has an annual base salary of $445,000 a year.

[NormsRevenge]

Google could use all the power from these projects alone to drive its data centers.. let them pay for it. This is also a RFK related green project, just one of many the Kennedys are in on.. used to be bootleg whiskey, now it's gubamint subsidies..

[NormsRevenge]

Meanwhile another ap / murky nooz piece from a couple days ago..
woo hooo.. We got Juice! I guess..

—

First big piece of ‘Electric Highway’ gets juice
http://www.mercurynews.com/cars/ci_20194025/first-big-piece-electric-highway-gets-juice
By Jeff Barnard

Associated Press
Posted: 03/16/2012 08:06:35 PM PDT

CENTRAL POINT, Ore. — Following a trail blazed by Indians and pioneers in covered wagons, electric car drivers hit the road Friday to inaugurate the first major section of a West Coast “Electric Highway” dotted with stations where they can charge up in 20 minutes.

The stretch of 160 miles of Interstate 5 served by eight stations marks the next big step in developing an infrastructure that until now has been limited primarily to chargers in homes and workplaces.

The stations go from the California border north to the Oregon city of Cottage Grove and are located at gas stations, restaurants and motels just off the nation’s second-busiest interstate. One is at an inn that was once a stage coach stop.

Spaced about every 25 miles, the stations allow a Nissan Leaf with a range of about 70 miles to miss one and still make it to the next. Electric car drivers will be able to recharge in about 20 minutes on the fast-chargers. The charge is free for now.

[Red_Devil 232]

The $182+ Million will be donated to Obama’s reelection PAC to insure a 500+ Million Government grant/bailout from Obozo’s Energy Dept. if he wins in Nov.

[Seaplaner]

...in a long-awaited initial public stock offering...

Long awaited, really?

LOL, the Merc is obediently performing its service to the current administration by pot banging for a "long-awaited" IPO, eh?

I hope they do well, really, but I suspect that they are goners shortly after the Nov election. (Just guessing, I'm not an invest analyst.)

.

[I Drive Too Fast]

They ONLY use mirrors. Rookies. I hear California’s budget frequently uses Smoke AND mirrors.

[G Larry]

Better talk to Sen. DiFi before investing in BrightSource.

She and the Sierra Club stopped them from building a multi-Megawatt Solar Farm in the Mojave desert just a few years ago.

They talk about green energy, but the truth is these people don’t want ANY energy solutions.

[Bernard Marx]

I’ll bet these shares will be a big item with the Occupy Wall Street Lefties. They’ll be making big buys with their trust fund and welfare cash. Wait, they expect “the rich” to finance this project. Guess my thinking’s all backward here.

[hinckley buzzard]

Solar thermal was the design originally touted by the Union of Concerned Scientists way back in the 80's. Very simple concept, a large array of heliostat mirrors all focussed on a central water boiler to make steam for power generation. Typically envisioned for the relatively cloudless Southwest desert. Nothing fancy about the technology, but the economics are not so clear.

[mosesdapoet]

Stuff like this should be located 0n the planet in tropical zones where you have at least 10 hours of sunlight not in temperate areas.

Such plants provide ,like wind farms, only intermittant power supply otherwise unless you require a supplemental type of energy coal gas what ever to drive the generators.

Otherwise you have lights out when the sun goes down and not worth the cost of building the infastructure substations and transmission lines needed to supply the end users.