Investors warm to BrightSource with $150m funding round

Californian solar thermal firm BrightSource Energy yesterday announced it has pulled in an additional $150m in equity financing, taking its total raised past the $300m mark and providing the company with a springboard for rapid expansion in the US and overseas.

The fourth round of funding was led by existing investors VantagePoint Venture Partners, Morgan Stanley and Draper Fisher Jurvetson, but significantly it also pulled in a commitment from French engineering giant Alstom to invest up to $55m in the company.

Philippe Joubert, Alstom Power president, said the move would bolster the company's existing renewable energy portfolio, which already includes hydro, wind and biomass technologies, and confirmed that the two companies would now " enter into an industrial relationship".

BrightSource Energy said it would use the new funding to move forward with plans for a fleet of solar thermal power plants in the US southwest and also support international expansion.

The deal with Alstom raises the prospect of expansion into Europe's booming solar energy market, while some commentators speculated that BrightSource may also have its eye on the potentially lucrative Chinese market.

However, the company is likely to initially focus on scaling up activity in its domestic market after it recently secured a major deal to supply 2,610MW of solar power to US energy giants Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and Southern California Edison through the construction of 14 solar power plants in the US southwest by 2016.

Work on the first plant, the high-profile Ivanpah project, is expected to get underway shortly after the company recently secured $1.37bn in loan guarantees from the US Department of Energy to support the Mojave Desert project.

The facility, which had to be scaled back following protests about the potential impact on the habitat of the endangered desert tortoise, is expected to be the largest solar energy project in the world and will nearly double US solar thermal capacity.

The latest funding round came in the same week as the US Solar Energy Industry Association released a report arguing that the extension of tax credits and other incentives for the sector would allow it to continue its rapid expansion, generating an additional 200,000 jobs by 2016.