CSP World

John Woolard is leaving the CEO position at BrightSource Energy after leading the company for seven years. Woolard will remain as member of the Board of Directors.

Former CEO Woolard and Executive Chairman David Ramm have published a joint blog post in BrightSource's blog where they take a look back to the company's brief but intense history since its foundation in 2006. "BrightSource has evolved from a small start-up with a great idea that became the foundation for the world’s largest solar thermal power project – to a company focused on global deployment of its solar field technology and support services. We wanted to share some details of that evolution, along with our views toward the future" they said.

"As our technology is validated at increasingly greater scale, BrightSource is evolving from being a U.S. project developer to becoming a global technology provider that also offers development support as well as engineering and operational services. The strategic development partnerships we have formed with Alstom and Abengoa further underscore this transition as well as the accelerated adoption of our technology" they state in the blog.

During these years the company has built a solar steam generation plant to provide steam for enhanced oil recovery at Chevron's Coalinga oil field and its flagship project, Ivanpah, a 377 MW tower plant that will represent a milestone for the entire concentrated solar power industry, is near completion. Another CSP plant, the 500 MW Palen project is on track to be built in partnership with Spain's Abengoa.

However, the company has had to face some setbacks in the permitting process for two planned projects 500 MW each in California, the Hidden Hills and the Rio Mesa plants. Both projects have been put 'on hold' after the California Energy Commission delayed the permitting process leading to BrightSource to be unable to accomplish the PPA requirements for the plants.

CSP sector in the US being deployed slower than expected and domestic companies are looking abroad to other markets. "Globally, we are seeing tremendous interest for CSP, especially in hybrid and storage applications. We estimate the global market for CSP to be approximately 30 gigawatts by 2020. International markets with significant future CSP growth include the Americas, China, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and South Africa. As we actively pursue international markets, we will continue to align with partners to emphasize our role as a provider of best-in-class technology and related services into projects that are developed, financed and owned by others. These projects will likely include solar electric (both with and without storage) and enhanced oil recovery projects, as well as other industrial applications seeking high quality and renewably generated steam. Partnering with world-class companies enables BrightSource to meet demand for our technology faster and more cost-effectively" said Woolard and Ramm

"BrightSource has accomplished a tremendous amount over the last seven years. We are committed to work together as a team as we advance the company’s technology, expand our geographic scope, and transition to a new CEO over the next few months", they said.

David Ramm will assume the responsibilities of CEO until a replacement can be found in the next months. "John is a giant in the industry, he's well known in the U.S. and globally, and he's the face of the company," Ramm said in an interview with Mercury News. "The next CEO needs to be someone who can actively complete projects where we are in a development role, but we also want someone who can transition the business internationally to more of a supply-and-engineering and operational services company." reports the newspaper.

JOHN M. WOOLARD
DIRECTOR, BRIGHTSOURCE ENERGY, INC.

John Woolard is the former President and CEO of BrightSource Energy, a developer of utility-scale solar power plants. In this role, John brings more than two decades of experience in the energy technology sector as an executive, entrepreneur and investor.

Prior to joining BrightSource Energy, John co-founded Silicon Energy, one of the first successful clean tech companies, and was President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board from 1997 to 2003. John joined the executive team at Itron, Inc. in 2003 following its acquisition of Silicon Energy, and was Vice President of Software Solutions and subsequently the Vice President of Strategy and Business Development. John previously held positions with VantagePoint Venture Partner’s CleanTech Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, and Pacific Gas & Electric Company.

John is a Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute and he currently serves on the advisory boards of the Tuolumne River Preservation Trust and U.C. Berkeley’s Haas School of Business Energy Institute and Lester Center for Entrepreneurship. John is also a member of the Oakland Zoo’s East Bay Zoological Society Board of Trustees.

John holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business at U.C. Berkeley, a Masters in Environmental Planning from the University of Virginia, and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Virginia.