BrightSource Energy’s Environmental Commitment

Environmental stewardship is a core value at BrightSource Energy. Our environmental commitment does not end with producing clean energy to address climate change and improve local air quality; we design solar thermal energy systems that are designed to minimize their impact on natural habitats and work with stakeholders to share these best practices.

Fast Facts

  • By using air to cool our solar plants instead of water, we reduce water usage by more than 90% over competing solar thermal technologies using conventional wet cooling systems.
  • When constructed, BrightSource Energy’s approximately 2.6 gigawatts of contracts with PG&E and Southern California Edison are estimated to avoid more than 2.5 million tons of CO2 annually.
  • BrightSource Energy’s PG&E and Southern California Edison contracts will also displace hundreds of tons of other criteria air pollutants each year, including carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds.

Low Impact Design

In addition to producing reliable and predictable clean energy, our technology is also designed to minimize impact to soil, plants and water use. For example:

  • Low Water Use: By operating at high temperature and efficiency levels, our systems can use air instead of water to condense the steam used in the boiler, conserving one of the most precious resources in the desert. This dry-cooling system allows us to reduce water usage by more than 90% over competing solar thermal technologies using conventional wet cooling systems. We also recirculate our water during energy production, and then reuse it to clean our mirrors, wringing the maximum use from every drop of the water we consume.
  • Low site impact: The heliostats used to focus the sun’s energy on our central tower are mounted on pylons that are placed directly into the ground. This approach greatly minimizes the need for grading and use of concrete pads that are common in other renewable energy technologies, such as photovoltaics, wind and other competing solar thermal systems. The use of individual pylons can also allow for vegetation to co-exist within our solar field and to avoid areas of sensitive habitat.
  • Avoids Oil and Synthetic Fluids: Our technology heats water directly into steam, avoiding the use of oil or synthetic heat transfer fluids found in competing solar thermal technologies that can be highly detrimental to the environment.

Site Selection

We select project areas that are near roads and existing transmission lines – places where human activity has already left its mark, such as grazing lands; where there is a reduced need for new transmission lines, and where environmental impacts can be minimized.

Environmental coordination with stakeholders

BrightSource carefully considers environmental concerns in our work with many other stakeholders - including governmental agencies, consumers, utilities and environmentalists - to develop the renewable energy policies western states and our nation need to fight climate change, enhance our economy, reduce dependence on foreign fuels, and protect both human health and wildlife. We engage local communities through outreach and work closely with the staff at environmental agencies that review our projects. We strictly adhere to the environmental regulations and guidelines, including the stringent environmental review processes required by the National Environmental Policy Act and the California Environmental Quality Act. We have also committed to go beyond legal requirements in protecting the environment, using dry cooling to reduce demands on scarce water resources.

Policy issues

BrightSource Energy, on its own and through participation in the Large-scale Solar Association, the Solar Energy Industry Association and other organizations, is working with many other stakeholders in the development of renewable energy and climate change policy. We are actively involved in California’s Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative, the Western Governors’ Association Western Regional Energy Zone project, and in both federal and state policy proceedings.

In each of these activities, we actively seek to understand and support environmental concerns, working closely with many regulatory agencies, environmental and consumer groups as well as with other renewable companies and energy interests. Our aim is to promote the policies that renewables need to fulfill their promise, allowing them to simultaneously provide substantial reductions in greenhouse gases and other pollutants while delivering reliable energy with significant economic benefits. With the right framework, BrightSource Energy and other renewable energy companies can provide the foundation for the clean energy economy.