BrightSource's $250 Million IPO to spread solar thermal

All renewable energy projects will face a tougher U.S. market if federal tax incentives aren't renewed before their scheduled expiration next year, according to an April 20 Bloomberg Government Briefing written by Rob Barnett, Marisa Buchanan and Joe Richter.

Technologies including wind and Solar energy made up about 45 percent of total power capacity added in 2009 and about a quarter of additions in 2010, Energy Information Administration figures show.

The IPO would be the first for a solar-thermal power systems maker in almost a decade, according to New Energy Finance data. EnviroMission, based in Victoria, Australia, filed for its IPO in August 2001. It has a license to build tower-based solar-thermal power stations, though it hasn't yet erected a utility-scale project.

Current shareholders stand to gain from the offering, including San Bruno venture capital investor VantagePoint Capital Partners, which owns 24.9 percent of the company's shares. BrightSource founder Arnold Goldman's Los Angeles Advisory Services has 7.5 percent, Draper Fisher Jurvetson 6.7 percent and Morgan Stanley 10.5 percent.

BrightSource promotes solar-thermal as superior to photovoltaic because energy can be stored. That gives the plants a more stable output of power, making them more attractive to grid operators.

Both PV and solar-thermal systems like BrightSource's currently produce electricity at a cost of about 17.5 cents a kilowatt hour in ideal environments, without incentives, New Energy Finance estimates, and the cost of solar PV power may decline by about half in the next decade. Electricity from coal costs about 7 cents a kilowatt hour compared with 6 cents for natural gas.