CSP World

BrightSource Energy has filed a notice of suspension for the proposed Hidden Hills CSP plant, currently under revision by the California Energy Commission (CEC).

Hidden Hills is a proposed 500 MW Concentrate Solar Power tower plant to be built in Inyo County, California. The plant would be similar to the currently under construction Ivanpah CSP plant.

As it was published by CSP World, BrightSource filed the Application for Certification on August 2011 in order to be assessed by CEC, a proceeding that has been delayed several times and has undergone some clashes between the company and the CEC staff.

As it's stated in the notice, " [BrightSource] does not wish for its Application to be withdrawn pursuant to Section 1709.8 of the Commission's regulations. The Applicant will file a subsequent notice when it wishes for the Commission to continue processing the Application for Certification for the Hidden Hills Solar Electric Generating System, and that notice will request a Committee conference to establish a new schedule in the proceeding based on the circumstances at that time".

This is the second project suspended by BrightSource, a few weeks ago the company did the same with the Rio Mesa SEGS project due to delays in the proceeding which would cause not to meet the requirements of the PPA signed with Southern California Edison.

Bad news for the CSP sector in the US, where delays in proceedings for approval of some projects are undermining the forecasted pace to deply CSP plants. It's expected that facts like this could cause to modify the proceedings in order to avoid such a waste of time and money, it's been two years of meetings, visits to proposed site, conducting studies, etc.

It's also worth noting that due to delays in issuing permits and because of the time needed for constructing a CSP plant, some PPAs are being questioned as too expensive, but we must bear in mind these PPAs were signed by 2010 and the project would be operational by 2015. California Public Utilities Commission took notice of this issue about PPAs and announced some changes in regulatory framework to allow a more efficient process.